Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church Hagerstown MD : History

Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church History

Imagine that you were visiting Hagerstown in 1897. When you asked a resident where the local Seventh-day Adventist Church was located, you would have been answered by blank stares; no one would have known. In fact, you would have been told that there wasn’t any such church in town.

But things were about to change. The next year the Review and Herald published the following notice in the Nov. 29 issue: “Over twenty are now keeping the Sabbath as a result of the tent-meetings held in this place (Hagerstown).”

The new group of Sabbath keepers was the result of a tent effort held by Elder John R. Jones and Jesse G. Stevens in the 800 block of West Washington Street. At that time the area was just outside of town.

The news related in the brief item was just the beginning of marvelous things. In the summer of 1899, according to facts presented in a talk given in 1973 by Violet Gordon, the new believers decided to start a Sabbath school. Then, at meetings held Oct. 11-16, 1899, the “over twenty” believers organized a company that would later become the Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church.

At first the members met in homes and in a firehouse on High Street. Then they rented a building on the corner of Locust and Wayside streets. The next location was across from the B&O Railroad Station and from there the GAR Hall on Franklin and North Potomac streets, where the congregation paid $3 for monthly rent.

In 1913, members constructed their own church building on the corner of McComas and Cross streets. Including the land and furniture, it was valued at $4,300, but not until 1939 were members able to pay off the debt. With new members joining, however, it became too small soon after it was paid for.

Members began discussing plans for a new building in the 1940s. But not until 1954, when Elder David Fleagle was pastor, did the congregation build a new church on Dual Highway. Built at a cost of $85,000, it was debt-free in 1958.

Then in 1988, a building committee was organized to develop plans for a larger place of worship at a more desirable location. The move was to take place over a period of several years. The committee considered several tracts of land before recommending the plot where the present church stands on Robinwood Drive.

However, on Sept. 4, 1991, an unforeseen event made it necessary to speed up the move. A fire, judged to have been lit by an arsonist, destroyed the church on Dual Highway. For about two years members met in the Church of God, just a few blocks down the road, while construction of the new church was accelerated. On Oct. 30, 1993, the first service was held in the still-not-completed new house of worship. The official grand opening celebration was held on the weekend of Dec. 10, 1993.

Written by Eugene Lincoln for the Centennial Celebration in 1999.