Worship With Us on Sunday at 11am : Sunday School at 9:45am
Our History: Perkins Presbyterian Church in Erie, PA
The following is a brief history of our church. In preparing it I see how small our circle is as our history returns to its beginning. It all started in 1882 when Dr. Fullerton pastor Park Presbyterian Church (later Church of the Covenant), asked Miss Julia E. Perkins to trade her Sunday school class of girls for a class on unruly boys, that had just bounced another of their male teachers.
Over the years the class grew it became like a fraternity, the young men and boys didn’t leave. They even had their own room at the church with their own keys and entrance.
The “MPC Class originally stood for Miss Perkins Class, later it also came to stand for Manliness, Purity and Courage.
In 1903 – County Superintendent of Sunday Schools – Lee Ryber asked the MPC class to take charge of a Sunday school 4 miles south of Erie in a village called Kearsarge.
His words were, “There is a need of a church in the community that our Sabbath School children and young people may have a place where they can take a definite stand of the Lord’s side and where all the people living beyond the reach of city churches and within the reach of this church can come to worship God.”
They met in a school building in the Kearsarge area since they had no building of their own. They were funded mainly by their ladies aide. And were very thankful to a benefactor named Ferdnand Plate.
In 1911 a gift of $15 from George K. Frank helped them with a dream of their own and started them on the collecting of money for a building of their own. Soon this fund grew to $40. By Easter of 1911 it was deposited into a building fund. Then Miss Perkins took to hand writing letters to their alumni and soon the fund swelled to $324.
Soon the church was built. In October of 1912 a charter was drawn for the Kearsarge Parish, on December 22nd of that year the building was dedicated as Perkins Chapel
March 29, 1914 the MPC class was moved to the Kearsarge church from the Park Presbyterian Church. The MPC class was now located in the first Perkins church (located on Peach Street, east side) on land donated J. H. Davie. This is the land where the Millcreek Hospital professional building is now located.
In 1916 the church became Perkins Presbyterian Church and it was pastored by Rev. R. S. VanCleve a retired Presbyterian minister. It had about 30 members and a Sunday school of about 60 to 70 members.
The building was described as having a nice sanctuary, 3 class rooms a fine basement with a water system, a good dining room and great kitchen.
There is a picture of this building hanging in our current MPC parlor along with the sign that originally stood in front of the building. The stain glass window in our narthex is a reworking of the stain glass windows from that building.
During the 1920’s the MPC class raised $600 to be sent to Guatemala to establish a Perkins Chapel there.
In 1937 Perkins celebrated its 25th anniversary service presided over by Rev. William Conner and a young man played the organ for that service his name was Edgar Forsyth and his brother Walter served as a Sunday school teacher.
Upon death of Miss Perkins the classroom furniture of MPC class was moved from Church of the Covenant to Perkins and Perkins became national headquarters of MPC class. The building was estimated to be worth $6,000 and only had a debt of a couple hundred dollars.
(Chancel in second building erected in 1948)
In 1947 – 1948 the church moved across the street to the southwest corner of Peach and Zimmerly, there they built a new 2-story building that served well. The land was donated by Herman Wurst and building built in large part by members. Chairs presently used in our fellowship hall was the seating for the sanctuary.
$2,000 was donated by Covenant Foundation, Church of the Covenant to furnish MPC room in that church.
The chairs that are used by our choir along with those in the MPC parlor, the table at the front of the sanctuary the cross, candlesticks, flags and wooden offering plates along with our organ all were moved from that building to their present home in this church. Along with the lighted picture of Miss Perkins that hangs in our present parlor. That MPC room in the Peach street church was dedicated on November 19, 1950.
That building served us well until the 1960’s when it was decided to move off the then busy Peach Street and to a larger building for our growing congregation. We sold the building and moved out. We moved the Sunday school and church offices to the old Plate farmhouse that was located where the present day Gary Miller Plymouth store is located. We held Sunday services in the old Kearsarge School across Peach Street. Every Sunday the chairs were set up in the activity room and taken down after services. Millcreek Township helped the church cross the “busy” Peach Street by erecting a traffic light to make our crossing safer. This was one of the first traffic lights located on southern Peach Street.
After years of saving and fund raising construction began on our present building it was completed in late 1964.
The first service was held here on Christmas eve 1964, 52 years and 2 days from the time the first building was dedicated as Perkins chapel.
