50 Years of Worshipping

Two months later, the congregation bought corner property at Seventh Street and Penn Avenue and started building their church. They finished it in late December. By 1926, the congregation had outgrown its church and began planning a new and larger structure. A new lot was purchased on March 1, 1927 on Virginia Avenue and the new building was ready for the congregation at Christmas services that year. Today the congregation numbers 300, and like our town, will be celebrating its golden anniversary this year.

The Catholics held their first mass in our town soon after Midland was organized, too. They first met in the dining room of the Weissen (Orchard) Hotel. Then, as we told you in our review of education, Father Gallagher bought the original Neel School for $100 after it was vacated in the fall of 1908. They used the building, moving it to the present parish grounds on Ohio Avenue in 1912, until their new building was completed. Originally the parish, named the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was established as a mission church served by St. Peter and Paul Church of Beaver.

The present brick church and school building was built by volunteer free labor assisted by a donation of material and labor from Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Company.

We said the story of our town included fire. One of the worst we suffered in 1935. It resulted in the destruction of the Presentation Church's convent where the sisters who teach at the parochial school live. They were unable to reoccupy the building for several months.

Today the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary serves about 5000 members from some 1200 families in the Midland area. Present plans call for an expansion and remodeling program to begin this year. The church building will be extended to accommodate about 200 additional seats. New quarters are planned for the sisters as well as increased space for the school.

The First Methodist Church, then known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church, held its first meetings in a rented room of a frame building on the east side of Eighth Street at the rear of what is now the Midland American Legion building. That was in 1912. The next year the church was incorporated and its charter recorded in the Beaver County Recorders office. In 1916, the church purchased ground on Ninth Street and Beaver Avenue and the present church was erected in 1917 and dedicated that year. The building was originally planned as a Sunday School room to be part of a larger edifice but has been used for both Church and Sunday School since 1918.

In 1913 the First Baptist Church was organized at a meeting in Rice's Hall on Midland Avenue. Later the services were moved to Fifth Street. The cellar of the new church was built in 1921 at a cost of $10,000. The stones in the building have a historical significance. They were given to the church by the Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Company and were at one time part of the company's old coke ovens. Later the auditorium was added, and in 1943 the entire indebtedness for the church was paid. In 1949 the present parsonage was erected so that today the property value of the church is $62,000.

In tracing religion in our town, it's not exactly right to point to the building of a church. Take the St. George Serbian Orthodox Church for example. While the church wasn't built until the late 1920's, the people planned it a long time. It really began with the arrival of the first group of Serbs who came to Midland seeking work. Work was plentiful in Midland's steel mills and the hearty, husky Serbs were welcomed. Generally they spoke little or no English and it was natural for them to seek out their own countrymen. Once gathered they tended to stay in the circle.

Although a common language, religion, and customs were a binding force, organized religious training was slow in developing. The Serbs felt a need for spiritual guidance but Serbian clergy were not available in this country and those who arrived later went to towns with much larger congregations than the one in our town.

The first real attempt to organize a Serbian Church in Midland was in 1927, but the effort reached success in 1930 when the congregation received a priest. He stayed only a few months but his presence made the Serbs more keenly aware of their need for a place of worship and a full time religious teacher.

The depression stilled the ambition to build a church, but in 1945, the Serbian church-school congregation was formed. Three lots on 10th Street were purchased for the site.

On January 15, 1947, a new priest, Very Reverend Milovan Dobrota arrived with his wife from Europe and later in the same year the cornerstone of the new church was laid. The colorful St. George Serbian Church was dedicated in June, 1948, the long dream of the Serbian people in our town. Three days of festivities to mark the occasion were evidence of a people reaching a goal after decades of groping and struggling for a place of worship for themselves and their children.

The new church, school, and parish house, built at a cost of $165,000, is a tribute to a people who brought their religion to our town long ago, carried it in their hearts for many decades and then gave it formal expression with the erection of their church. And we think it's pretty much a tribute toward the way we feel about religion generally around here.

The Sons of Israel Congregation built their synagogue at Seventh Street and Beaver Avenue in 1926.

One church building has served three congregations. The original First Presbyterian Church building was later sold to the Church of God congregation and now houses the Italian Christian Church.

Other churches in our town include the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, the Pentecostal Church, St. Paul's A.M.E. Church, and the Church of God in Christ.

Like we said, we have a strong belief in prayer in our town and a lot of respect for a person's right to pray the way he feels is the best way.