Jesus saves Scranton

Scranton Road Bible Church (again)

 

If you pay attention to the world, you would know that the odds of this church being a Baptist one extremely good. It has had a few names, and its current name was used before. The congregation has been on a building expansion program. The sign is a new one, replacing an older identical one. The sign directly faces St. Michael the Archangel Catholic, once the largest and still the tallest church in the city. Baptists have a long history of antipathy to Catholics.

St. Michael the Archangel

The church was started on the east side in 1869, and moved here (then referred to as the south side) in 1874. This building was built in 1893. St. Michael's was built from 1889 to 1892, a previous church was built in 1883, and burned in 1891 as the new church was going up.

The Spanish Influenza killed many of the Baptists in 1918. Czech Baptists began services there then, eventually the congregation became Czech speaking. The new name was “West Side Czecho-Slovak Baptist Church” in 1942.  In 1962, a Parma church was built, and the language was English again at Scranton.

 iron cage for a previous air conditioner

There has been an influx of money for infrastructure on the street and nearby. New surface has just been placed on the intersecting Clark, the road markings have not been finished. Several other street improvements have been made. On the third corner of the intersection, a remodel of the Carnegie Library has been completed.  Still, the neighbourhood has a rough and sketchy side.