November – 100 years ago
The Christian Advocate carried the following article from the Central Pennsylvania Conference: “Tuesday, November 19, 1918, the new Parish House, which York First Church purchased from the Small estate, was opened with suitable exercises, which many attended. It has three floors, ample room space, and is thoroughly furnished for its several purposes.”In 1918 York First, which relocated to East Market Street in 1938 and was renamed Asbury following the 1968 Methodist-EUB union, was situated at its second site – an impressive structure at the northwest corner of Philadelphia and Beaver Streets. The congregation’s first site had been at the northwest corner of Philadelphia and Newberry Streets, which it sold to the United Brethren in 1840. The site of the 1918 Methodist Episcopal church, parsonage, and former J.E. Small home (at 104, 110, and 112 N. Beaver Street respectively) is now occupied by a parking garage.
December – 50 years ago
The United Methodist Church had been created by denominational union in April 1968. December 1968 was the final issue of two of our predecessor women’s missionary publications, The Methodist Woman (former Methodist) and The World Evangel (former EUB), which then combined to produce United Methodism’s Response magazine beginning in January 1969. The final issue of The Methodist Woman included the obituary of retired deaconess Anna K. Nestor. Miss Nestor (1882-1968), who retired to the Bancroft-Taylor Home in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, in 1951, had served at the Altoona Italian Methodist Church from 1937 until it closed in 1942 and was remembered as a shy worker known for her deep compassion and acts of charity.The Italian Methodist Episcopal Church of Altoona stood on the northwest corner of Eighth Avenue and Sixth Street on land purchased by the Altoona Evangelization Society in 1906. The property was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1942, and the buildings (church, parsonage, and rental units) were razed. The site is now a paved lot for a truck terminal.
