The banquet, which will be held at a sister church, First Covenant Church at 316 Wood Road in Rockford, also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the completion of the first sanctuary for North Park Evangelical Covenant.
On Sunday, October 21st, the North Park congregation will continue the celebration with a special worship service of thanksgiving and re-dedication, which will be conducted in the North Park Evangelical Covenant Church sanctuary at 545 Superior Avenue in Machesney Park.
It was shortly after the end of World War II (1946) that First Mission Covenant Church in Rockford had a vision to organize several satellite Sunday school programs around the outskirts of Rockford, one being in the northern developing community of North Park. That area already included Harlem High School, built in 1911, and a few businesses.
The intersection of North Second Street and Harlem Road was the nucleus of the community, according to LaVon Reese, a member of the anniversary committee who supplied historical data for this article. “Radiating out from this nucleus was the construction of many new homes – this formed a community of lower-income families who were struggling to improve life for their families,” she writes.
“The community was a family with a heart of caring and helping each other, from watching each others’ children or helping each other in times of illness or emergency, to borrowing a cup of sugar or a couple slices of bread or helping dig septic systems, wiring electricity and installing plumbing for new neighbors. Everyone had the heart of helping each other.”
The new Sunday school program was well received, Reese notes, first meeting in Lindstrom’s store on the northeast corner of North Second Street and Harlem Road. By the end of 1946, enrollment was 60. In 1948, the school was moved to Harmony Grange Hall – today that site is occupied by First Baptist Church. In April 1949, George Svenson came to pastor this small congregation.
Ground was broken for Harlem Chapel on October 29, 1950, at the church’s present location on Superior Avenue. In his 1950 end-of-year report, pastor Svenson wrote of his efforts to raise funds for the construction, noting, “Anyone who does not see the great need and opportunity in this particular place is shortsighted. From 3,000 population two years ago, it has grown to 7,000 today and there is no church yet.”
The new building, built with volunteer labor, was occupied in 1951, and by 1954 the Sunday school enrollment stood at 170, with a 25-member Chapel Society also in place. A 75th commemorative booklet produced by First Mission Covenant observes, “Hitherto and henceforth, the sacrifice and persistence of those who made this chapel possible cannot be measured. The building itself will ever be a monument and testimony to their willing service.”
In July of 1955, Pastor Roy Olund and his wife, Maryann, came to serve in July 1955. Shortly after their arrival, plans were begun for the building of the upper sanctuary, with construction beginning in September the following year and the new space occupied in spring of 1957, just in time to handle a Sunday school that had now expanded to 300 members. The new facility was dedicated October 20 that year.
“Today we are your neighborhood church on the corner,” writes Reese, adding, “Our story is still being told.”
To learn more about the church, its history and celebration plans and its ministries, email either LaVon Reese or church chair Candy Wahlstrom. Information also is available on the church website.
