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First United Methodist Church Of Vandergrift

134 Custer Avenue
724-568-5575

Organized in the new steel mill town of Vandergrift created by the Apollo Iron and Steel Company in 1896. Action to established the Church was spurred by the Company offer of a building site and half the cost of a Church building.

Organizing initiative was by the pastor of the Apollo Methodist Episcopal Church, Reverend Noble Garvin Miller, and members of the Apollo Church, planning to move to the new town. The Church building was erected in 1897-1898 with the dedication on April 24, 1898 by Bishop C. C. McCabe. It was created with such impetus that at the end of the first pastorate in 1901, it was a Station Church with 430 members. It entertained the Pittsburgh Conference session in 1908.

The Church was rebuilt, with additions in 1958-1959, during the pastorate of Reverend Dr. Wallace Guy Smeltzer as a cost of $236,000. The parsonage at 203 Washington Avenue was built in 1902. It was remodeled in 1965.

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