Grace Reformed Church (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

The Reformed Church was founded in 1725 as a German immigrant denomination. In 1934 a vast majority of Reformed Churches, including the Grace Reformed Church, united with the Evangelical Synod of North America to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. In 1957 this new church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ. Although officially uniting with the Evangelical Synod of North America in 1934, there still exists roughly forty RCUS denominations in the United States today. The majority of these are located in the Northern Plains, South Central, and Western parts of the United States. In December of 1853, Rev. Dr. Henry Harbaugh, president of Philadelphia based Franklin and Marshall College, was summoned to Pittsburgh at the request of resident Mrs. Amelia K. Schmertz concerning the potential establishment of a local organization of a Reformed Church. The result of this visit contributed to the 1854 establishment of the Pittsburgh congregation of the Grace Reformed Church, a denomination of The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS). Services were first held in a hall at the corner of Smithfield Street and Virgin Alley in downtown Pittsburgh and included an initial congregation of seven charter members. A year later the Grace Reformed Church purchased three vacant lots on the corner of Grant and Webster Streets and prepared plans for the construction of a new building. Completed in December of 1857, the original church structure of the Grace Reformed Church would serve the needs of its congregation for just under six years. In 1899, confronted with an increasing number of members leaving downtown for the suburbs, the Church purchased a plot of land in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh situated at the corner of Dithridge and Bayard Streets and in October 1901 began construction on a new edifice. Completed two years later in July 1903, this new structure served as the permanent location of the Grace Reformed Church until 1964, when the congregation was forced to dissolve due to shrinking numbers in membership and increasing financial instability. In 1968 the Church was demolished.