Redner, Lewis Henry 12/15/1831 - 08/29/1908

Lewis Henry Redner (1831-1908) was a U.S. American musician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known as the composer of the popular Christmas carol "St. Louis", better known as "O Little Town of Bethlehem".



Redner worked in the real-es­tate bus­i­ness in Philadelphia, and played the or­gan at four dif­fer­ent church­es dur­ing his life. He spent 19 years as organist at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. While there, he set Pastor Phillips Brooks's poem of his recollection of a pilgrimage to Bethlehem to music on Christmas Eve, 1868, and the carol was first sung the next day.



Redner never married. He died in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was buried at The Woodlands Cemetery in Phil­a­del­phia.