Baptist Churches of Lackawanna County, PA

• The Penn Avenue Baptist Church 1887 Annual Report, with lots of names - Scanned booklet
• Penn Avenue-Immanuel Baptist Church Messenger  NEW addition July 2021 (weekly program), Oct. 18, 1908 to July 3, 1910. The first issue is Volume I, No. 1 when services were being held in the temporary Tabernacle, Jefferson Avenue and Mulberry Street, while the new church was being built. When the new church was complete enough for services, January 4, 1910, the name was changed to Immanuel Baptist Church. Based on the note on the last issue, there may not be any more issues of the Messenger.
• Immanuel Baptist Church Girl's Sunday School Class Cookbook - no date
• Penn Avenue-Immanuel Baptist Church 1934 75th Anniversary with a complete history, plus information on other Baptist Churches - Scanned booklet
• Green Ridge Baptist Church 1942 50th Anniversary - Scanned booklets
• Jackson Street Baptist Church 1971 100th Anniversary - Scanned booklet
  

Penn Avenue Baptist Church was organized on Monday, August 22, 1859, at the house of Nathaniel Hallstead, on Franklin Avenue, with a membership of twenty-five.  Previously, however, there had been held several meetings from time to time looking toward the organization which was finally effected. The first of these preliminary meetings of which there is any record was held on Saturday, May 28, 1859, at the house of N. Hallstead, at which time the resolution offered by James F. Friant was adopted, which led to the organization.  A second meeting was held at the same place on Wednesday evening, August 17th, at which certain preliminaries were attended to, and the organization followed these preliminaries on the date given above, the name given to the new church at that time being "The First Baptist Church of Scranton".  On September 7, 1859, the name was changed so as to omit the word "First".  The constituent members of the church were as follows: Nathaniel Hallstead, Mrs. F. A. Hall, A. R. Friant, Charles Q. Carman, Mrs. Elizabeth Carman, L. R. Cutler, Mrs. C. L. Cutler, Richard Swick, Mrs. H. A. Swick, Lewis Lewis, Mrs. Mary Lewis, Silas A. Hallstead, Hannah Lewis, Reuben A. Henry, Sarah C. Krigbaum, George W. Archer, Mrs. Catharine Scull, George W. Lung, Mrs. Lydia Cook, and Mrs. S. A. Lukens.  Eighteen of these members had been dismissed from the First Baptist church of Hyde Park.  The next Wednesday afternoon, August 24th, a council met to recognize the church, the public services being held in the evening, and the sermon being preached by Rev. Isaac Bevan, D. D.  At this service thirteen Baptist ministers were present, most of whom took part.  The next thing to be done was to secure a hall for public worship, and Odd Fellows' Hall was rented, Rev. Theophilus Jones preaching to the new organization every Sunday night for two months.

During this time, steps were taken to organize a Sunday-school, which met for the first time Sunday, September 18th.  The first regular pastor was Rev. Isaac Bevan, who, when the call was extended to him, was secretary of the general association.  His pastorate began November 1, 1859,  the membership of the church then being twenty-three. Rev. Mr. Bevan's salary the first year was $500.00, and during that year the membership of the church grew to fifty-two. Services were conducted in Odd Fellows' Hall for a little more than a year, when they were transferred to Washington Hall, where they were continued until the basement of the church's own building was completed. This church building was located on lots secured from the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, the church purchasing one from $2,500.00, and the company donating one. An additional lot was afterward purchased on Penn Avenue for $1,100.00, and still later, in order to square these lots back to what is now Oakford Street, $2,500.00 was paid to Hon. John Handley for what, from its shape, was known as the flat-iron lot, making the entire cost of the church's lots $6,100.00. In September, 1865, the lecture room of the new edifice was completed. On January 4, 1866, the church was incorporated under the name of "The Baptist Church of Scranton," which name was retained until June 27, 1881, when the charter was so amended as to change the name to "The Penn Avenue Baptist Church of Scranton." The church was dedicated November 6, 1867, the principal sermon being preached by Rev. Thomas D. Anderson, of New York. The dimensions of the audience room as it then was, were forty-eight by fifty-eight feet, and it was twenty-four feet, eight inches in the clear. It had a seating capacity of four hundred and fifty persons. The entire cost of the building [at 230 Penn Avenue] was $20,000.00, almost all of which was paid before the dedication, and most of the small remainder was at that time provided for. [See the article in the Scranton Times-Tribune for a history of the building.]

Rev. Isaac Bevan remained pastor until November 2, 1869, when he resigned after a laborious and successful pastorate. The membership of the church had grown from twenty-three to two hundred and one, and the Sunday-school had then a membership of two hundred and fifty-two. The next pastor was Rev. W. P. Hellings of Germantown, Pennsylvania, who accepted the call extended December 20, 1869, and began his labors here February 1, 1870. He remained until June 1, 1877, when he resigned to accept a call to a Baptist church in Lockport, New York. During his pastorate, Deacon Nathaniel Hallstead gave the church the parsonage, which is valued at $12,000.00. The number added to the church during the Rev. Mr. Hellings' pastorate was three hundred and eighty-eight, and the amount of money raised during the same time was $47,514,42. He was succeeded by Rev. A. M. Hopper of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who began his duties September 1, 1877, and remained until June 30, 1880. During his pastorate thirty-two were added to the church and the contributions amounted to $8,793.55. Rev. David Spencer of Philadelphia, who was well known as the secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, was the next pastor, having resigned his secretaryship to accept the call of this church, commencing his labors here September 1, 1880, and being installed on the 28th of the same month. The sermon on this occasion was preached by Rev. J. G. Walker of Philadelphia.  In 1884, on October 12th, at the close of the first twenty-five years of the history of the church, Rev. David Spencer preached an anniversary sermon, from which many of the facts were obtained that are embodied in this sketch, in which he stated as a summary of the church's work that one thousand one hundred and twenty-four persons had been from time to time connected with the church, and that it had raised for all purposes $150,045.78, of which $7,322.82 had been given to missionary and educational societies. Rev. Mr. Spencer was succeeded by Rev. Warren G. Partridge, who is pastor at the present time, and under whose ministry the church has prospered abundantly. 

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