The Pine Grove United Presbyterian Church
was organized in 1879; the first service being held in on the second
floor of the Pine Grove School House on Center Street on April 6,
1879. Over the next several months, services were held in
various places: an additional service at the school house,
along Wolf Creek near where the Pine Grove Hotel now stands, and at an
unoccupied Presbyterian Meeting House near the corner of Broad and
Poplar Streets. It was in the meeting house that the Pine
Grove United Presbyterian Church was formally instituted on September
10, 1879.
Charter
members of the church included: Mr.
and Mrs. D. C. Craig, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Craig, Mattie Cummings, Mr.
and Mrs. Samuel Cummings, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Frew, Margaret M. Kelly,
Margaret Mc Bride, Eliza McFate, Mr. and Mrs. A. B. McKay, Mr. and Mrs.
W. J. McKay, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph McKee, Jennie Miller, Mr. and Mrs. G. W. White, Mr. and Mrs. J. N.
White, Marie White, Narcissa White, and Susanna White.
In
1883, when Pine Grove was renamed Grove City, the church officially
became the First United Presbyterian Church of Grove City.
The
congregation moved into a frame building off of Main Street, costing
$5,000, in May 1883. This church was destroyed by fire in
1892.
A new red brick church was built in 1893 on the site of the old
church. This building was outgrown in the early 1900s.
The present church building, built across Main Street from the old
church, was dedicated on July 12, 1909.
In 1958, the name of the church was changed to the East Main United
Presbyterian Church.
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East Main Presbyterian Church,
photographed in May 2000
"Once
called Pine Grove United Presbyterian Church and First United
Presbyterian Church of Grove City"
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