Monthly Bible study. Please enter through the front door if worship service has started. Founding of Third Presbyterian Church
Third Presbyterian Church was organized on April 2, 1907, but several key events occurred in the years
before that for the church to become official. Between 1890 and 1900, North Tonawanda handled more lumber than anywhere else in the United States. Buffalo Bolt moved its
plant here and Tonawanda Iron Works built its blast furnace on River Road. Other
large industries moved in, including Buffalo Pumps, American District Steam Co, Wurlitzer Co., Rand
and many others. The Gratwick section of North Tonawanda was populated mostly by residents of German descent, with no
English-speaking church there. The Methodist Church decided to erect a building and establish a mission
on Felton Street, the main business street in Gratwick. It was constructed sometime during the 1890s. Methodist services were held there for a few years but were discontinued before 1900 because of lack of
interest. In the early 1900s, Charles J. Stoll, who lived on Ward Road, felt that if there was not to be an
English language church in the neighborhood, there should at least be a Methodist Sunday School. He
established a Sunday School in the Felton Street building on Felton Street with Edward S. Mye and it
grew. Later, the minister at North Presbyterian Church, Rev. Duncan Cameron, felt there should be
English language preaching services in the building. Each Sunday he came to preach on Felton Street
after conducting his services at North on Payne Avenue. The congregation began to grow, and in early 1907 it was decided to organize as a church. On April 2,
1907, 46 members were taken into the church and a meeting was called. It was decided, in appreciation of
the work of Rev. Cameron, to form a Presbyterian church. On April 21, 1907, a committee met for the purpose of incorporating as the Third Presbyterian Church. The committee was comprised of Mye, John H. Bollier, Henry Krull, John J. Lichtenberger, W. Herbert
Cu***ng and Joseph McDermand. The incorporation was completed on April 29, 1907. The first elders were Stoll, Mye and Krull; the first trustees were Cu***ng, Lichtenberger, McDermand,
Bollier, Arthur Mollnow, and Charles Davis. Cameron continued to preach at Third, and by the end of the year there were 102 members. A
meeting was held with Third Presbyterian Church elders and trustees and representatives of the Genesee
Conference of the Methodist Church to discuss the sale of the building to the Presbyterians. The meeting
was held in the Methodist church at Main and Tremont streets. In the end, the Methodists decided to give
the building to the new Presbyterian congregation. Since that time church membership has grown and declined, and members have come and gone, but the
church has stayed and continues to minister to the local and wider community. Its missions include the
North Tonawanda Food Pantry, Salvation Army, Church World Service and The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), among others. As they put it in 1928, It’s “The little Church around the corner with a BIG Welcome.”
