Moment in Time (February 10, 2022)

Four years after Grandview was incorporated in 1906, what is now First Community Church was established as Grandview Heights Congregational Church, and they built their first chapel at Lincoln Rd. and First Ave. In 1919 they reorganized as First Community Church and moved into a new building at 1320 Cambridge Road in 1925. This view of the new church is from a c1930 postcard.

As the area that is now Grandview Heights began developing, the Harding School was constructed on a site on Fairview Avenue just north of First Avenue in 1895, replacing the original Walcutt School that was located near Grandview Avenue and Dublin Road. A decade later, a village government was organized, businesses began to flourish, and life in the community became more established. But there was a sense that something was still missing.

Because there was no formal church in the new village, residents who wanted a religious exposure were required to travel into Columbus to attend services at one of the churches there. In spite of the fact that the trolley system that connected the area with downtown in 1901 made the trip reasonably short, approximately a half hour, families had a desire for something a little more convenient, and they wanted local Sunday school and religious exposure for their children. So a group of parents organized religious classes for their children in the Harding school on Sunday. It proved to be a very popular move, and the demand soon exceeded the available space.

Conversations turned to the establishment of a church in the community. A survey of residents exposed that they represented a large number of different religious backgrounds, and it was decided by majority vote that a Congregational church would be the best plan. Planners reached out to Columbus metropolitan Congregational leaders, and in 1910 secured a promise of substantial financial support for buying land and building a Congregational church.

Early in the spring, the group bought two lots on the corner of First Avenue and Paul Avenue (later renamed Lincoln Road.) A few weeks later, they united as Grandview Heights Congregational Church, and hired their first minister, Fred L, Brownlee. The following year, construction of the church building began. James Daymude was hired to build the new chapel, which was designed by Howell & Thomas architects, and the cost of the building was approximately $10,000.

Rev. Brownlee left the local church in late 1914 to return to the seminary, and later assumed a leadership position with the American Missionary Association. So the church hired Oliver Weist, who would become one of the most popular and influential ministers in the church. Because of his musical background, he added a pipe organ to the chapel, organized adult and children’s choirs, and an orchestra and men’s chorus that engaged people from outside the church.

In 1916, Weist proposed and organized Field Day, an annual event that brought together community members from Grandview, Marble Cliff, and Upper Arlington for a “day of fun and frolic, a carnival parade, and continuous lemonade” according to an announcement of the festivities. The tradition continued for a decade.

In 1919, after an unsuccessful attempt to join together the Congregational Church, the new Methodist Church in town, and the Presbyterian Church that had been meeting in Upper Arlington, the leaders decided to reorganize as a nondenominational community church, and First Community Church of Grandview was incorporated. The congregation grew, and in 1922 the church exceeded the capacity of the small chapel. Land on Cambridge Road was purchased, and plans for a new building were unveiled. Because of economic constraints, construction didn’t begin until 1924, and the first service in the new building was held on Christmas Eve of 1925.

Membership grew rapidly, and additional expansions of the church followed. In 1949, Camp Akita opened; in 1945 the Krupp/Anderson house on First Avenue adjacent to the chapel was purchased and was used for the preschool, teen center, and home for the church trading post until it was razed in 1977; in 1952 an education wing was added to the main church; in 1962 First Community Village opened; North Campus of the Church opened in 1992, with an education wing added there in 2008; in 2017 construction began on a new sanctuary at the North Campus, with the first service held at Christmas of 2019.

Thanks to First Community Church historian and Historical Society Trustee Jackie Cherry, author of Reflections on Our Heritage: A History of First Community Church (2009) for historical details. The Cambridge Blvd. church and the Lincoln Rd. chapel can be found on the free History Walks app at grandviewhistorywalks.org.