Congregations Through the Years

Faith & Church Heritage

A Community Built Around Congregations

The final twelve pages of Mount Union’s 1967 centennial section surveyed churches serving the borough and nearby communities. This page preserves the dates and milestones reported in that edition as historical information, not as a directory of present-day congregations.

Historical snapshot

Names, affiliations and meeting places can change. For current addresses, services and contact information, use the churches section of the community directory. The entries below reflect the newspaper’s 1967 terminology.

1838

Methodist worship was reported to have begun with a service led by the Rev. Jacob Gruber. A first worship house followed in 1850, and the later church was dedicated May 18, 1913.

1845

Presbyterian congregation: the centennial history placed its beginning in 1845.

1848

Catholic worship: the newspaper reported services in the John Dougherty home by 1848. A 1912 construction contract with T. C. Peduzzi preceded the opening of St. Catherine’s church in 1913.

1903

First Baptist Church was organized in 1903, according to its centennial profile.

1913–1916

St. Luke Lutheran was identified as founded in 1913, while the Christian and Missionary Alliance congregation traced its start to 1916.

1914–1919

Mount Hope Baptist and Mount Union Baptist were both placed in 1914; Mount Hope’s first church followed in 1917. Bethel AME was reported active from 1919.

1920s

Cedar Crest–Lucy Furnace began as a Sunday school serving the area, according to the 1967 retrospective.

1936–1942

Mount Union Assembly traced its beginning to 1936. Pilgrim Holiness organized in summer 1938 and erected its building at 609 South Jefferson Street in 1942.

Also Documented in 1967

Places of Worship in the Centennial Survey

Sts. Peter & Paul Orthodox

The edition pictured the church near the Route 522 bridge, a landmark whose onion dome remains one of the area’s most recognizable religious architectural features.

Tabernacle Church of God in Christ

Included among the congregations and church photographs assembled in the special section.

Otelia Mennonite

Documented in the church survey along with an Allenport-area church photograph, showing the section’s reach beyond the borough limits.

These dates come from congregational histories printed by The Daily News in 1967. They are valuable contemporary retrospectives, but exact founding dates and denominational changes should be checked against church minutes or denominational archives when those records become available.

Sources

  1. The Daily News, June 6, 1967, viewer pp. 78–90.