Dr. Milton Loyer, Conference Archivist
July – 100 years ago
The new United Brethren church building in Tower City, Schuylkill County, was dedicated by Bishop William Bell July 11, 1920. That brick building replaced the congregation’s original frame 1872 structure. A Christian Education addition was dedicated in 1958. The Evangelical congregation in Tower City followed a very similar path, erecting a frame structure in 1872 and replacing it with a brick building in 1922. When the Evangelical church was destroyed by fire in 1947, the 1920 UB building became the home for the united congregation until 1978, when Tower City’s former EUB and Methodist churches, then named Zion and Wesley united to form Christ UMC.
The Methodist congregation in Tower City had also started with a frame building in 1888 and replaced it with a brick structure in 1918. It was in this 1918 former Methodist building, using the pews and altar furnishings from the former EUB building, that the united congregation ultimately worshiped until the present modern building was erected with the help of the conference’s Church Builders Club in 1991.
August – 50 years ago
On August 16, 1970, the first Spanish language service of a new community outreach was held in Harrisburg in the Derry Street UMC chapel. Rev. Emilio Martinez, of the Harrisburg Teen Challenge, led the service. As reported a few months later in THE LINK: “The trustees of the church gave their unanimous approval for this ministry. The work has grown and now both morning and evening services are being conducted as well as a church school for the children. A request has recently come for permission to use the chapel for a midweek service.” Unfortunately, United Methodist efforts over the years have failed to sustain enduring ethnic ministries in the area. Derry Street began as a church plant of the Boas Street [First] United Brethren Church in 1889, and in turn gave birth to the Twenty-Ninth Street congregation in 1924. First UMC, Derry Street UMC and Twenty-Ninth Street UMC all ceased operating in 2019, although the latter building continues to serve the newly-formed congregation known as The Journey.
