The history of our church buildings has an interesting twist. Our first church building was on Genesee St., but close to downtown. Our current church, also on Genesee St., is about five miles East of that first building. In essence, it took 125 years to move those five miles.
After meeting in homes, an unoccupied schoolhouse, and even an old Baptist Church on West Genesee St. from 1836 through 1838, our first church building was a small wooden structure not much bigger than our current Memorial Room. It was built for $607 and the first service was conducted in January of 1839. Our first minister, Rev. John Storer, arrived in 1839, too, and after taking his first look at the church building, he called it his “Little Tabernacle,” as it barely held the 40 members usually in attendance each Sunday. Today much of that location is occupied by the Hiscock and Barclay building. Its founder, Judge Frank Hiscock, was an active leader in our church during the early part of the last century. An important note: Where our building stood would have been on part of what is today a parking lot.
That little building served us well for only five years as our membership grew steadily. Standing room only constraints on parishioners resulted in the construction of our second church building at the corner of Burnett and Lock (now State) Street, very near the Erie Canal. The building several times larger than the first one, was completed in the fall of 1843 for the price of $5000. Named the Church of the Messiah, it was an imposing structure. To see photos of this and our other buildings, go to this Internet site: http://history.mmuus.org/churchbuildings.pdf. Today that building is gone, and it its place, you guessed it, a parking lot.
Unfortunately, a railroad track was laid down quite near the Church of the Messiah, and the resulting noise overpowered services, meetings, and even weddings. Thus our next building, named in honor of our second minister, was called May Memorial church, a name we still hold today. It was built at 472 James St. for the cost of $50,000. This beautiful church served us very well from 1985 through 1964. Unfortunately, we eventually outgrew it and had our current church constructed. Would it surprise you to know that today 472 James St. is a parking lot?
Our 3800 E. Genesee St. church was built for $447,000 and was dedicated on October 10, 1964. It, too, has served us very well for these past 45 years and we do have a fairly large parking lot!
Rog Hiemstra, Chair, History Committee
Written October 13, 2009
