Howard Street Christian Church

History of our Church

 

The Howard Street Christian Church was founded in 1891. During its early years, the congregation utilized the Drake Divinity School in Des Moines and called student pastors to serve the ministries of the Church.  Since the mid 50's, the Church has called both part-time and full time ministers to serve as pastors of the church.   The location of the building "at the foot of Howard Street" gave it its name (even though it actually sits on Locust Street!).  Over the years the structure  itself has undergone many changes: bell tower removed, basement added, stucco applied to the original brick, a classroom building added to the West, a fellowship hall attached to the classroom building, the old church torn down,  a new sanctuary with restrooms and offices added, and finally in 2008, a new Family Life Center (the Chalice Room) was added with additional restrooms and new commercial-type kitchen.  The Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall and Fireside Room incorporates much of the stained glass salvaged from the original church building, so as to retain the character and witness of those faithful souls who first committed to building the church almost 125 years ago!