Church History and Online Archives
Archival Information
A Short History of St. George's
The Reverend Pope (1st Rector, 1954)
Dear Friends (Fred Pope farewell, 1966) 1963 - 1964 Guidebook
Welcome to St. George's (1984) Story of St. George's (25th anniversary publication)
Church History
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It seems doubtful the 145 people who attended St. George’s first worship service in March of 1954 could have imagined the home we have today—its vaulting ceilings, beautifully appointed altar, vibrant stained glass windows, magnificent pipe organ, or perfectly pitched steeple bell. They were worshipping, after all, in the basement of a bank building at the present-day site of the Town & Country Mall. Still, those first worshipers were anything but visionless. In early 1954 they recognized that their fast-growing community needed a new spiritual home. Within two months they attracted their first congregants, identified a meeting place, and held their first service. By year-end, they welcomed their first vicar, gained official status as a Diocesan mission, and selected a site for a new church building on a beautiful country hilltop.
While the church site rose heavenward, the path to building construction proved decidedly mortal; it was strewn with hard work and fundraising. The first of several campaigns to raise money began in the spring of 1955. By August of that same year, enough capital had been generated to break ground on a new parish house. The building, located on the same property we own today (a former farm and apple orchard), was designed to have a first-floor nave and a basement church school. As construction progressed, so did the congregation. Straining capacity of the old bank building, members worshipped at a local school gymnasium while they waited for their new home—and built a financial foundation for their church community. By the time the first congregant took a seat in the new parish house in March of 1957, St. George’s was self-supporting. As a result, it was designated a full parish at the May 1957 Diocesan Convention. By 1961 the St. George congregation counted 500 communicants—too many to be comfortably accommodated in the parish house that once seemed spacious. And so, another building fund was started. The goal: to build a church (incorporating the parish house) with seating capacity for 480 and a full undercroft for parish and community activities. Two years and $325,000 later, that goal was met; in September of 1963, parishioners entered our present church for the first time to worship and celebrate. Their old “parish home” was renamed the Frederick A. Pope Parish Hall (in honor of St. George’s first vicar/rector), was remodeled in 2002 and, with full multimedia capabilities, is used for a variety of fellowship events and educational ministries. History milestones
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