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| Parkside Presbyterian Church |
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| Painting by Iris Moen - 1999 |
The roots of Parkside Presbyterian Church go back to the first decade
of the twentieth century. As early as 1907 a few children were brought together on North Few Street in a house which
was to become known as the "Few Street Mission". Under the watchful eye of the Reverend George H. Hunt, D.D., Pastor
of Christ Church, and some of the members of his congregation the little band flourished enough to be regarded as a future
possibility.
A meeting was held at the "Parkside Faith Mission" on September
11, 1919 in preparation for the formation of a corporation. This meeting was presided over by Reverend A.C. Stark and
five trustees were elected. Three of these trustees were members of Christ Church. The church was not organized
until October 12, 1919, with twenty-four charter members. The church purchased a barracks building at 1140 East Dayton
Street which housed the congregation until a newly erected gothis-style building was built on Few Street, near Tenney Park,
in 1925. (A painting of that church was done by Iris Moen in 1968.) Parkside relocated at the present site in
1960, after the congregation voted to sell the Few Street property in 1956 to Trinity Pentecostal Church. A service
of departure and arrival, attended by both congregations, was held on Sunday, July 26, 1959 when Parkside Church officially
turned over the property and the keys to the new congregation.
Sale of the Few Street property was the last of many steps taken
preceding the building of the new church. After the architect's plans had been approved, the land purchased, and the
bids for the new edifice received, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 12, 1959. The congregation held services
at the Schroeder Funeral Home and the Sunday School was conducted at the Atwood Community House until occupying the current
building on Lien Road in June 1960.
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