The first services and Sunday
School were held in a one-room schoolhouse in West Crowley in 1887.
Rev. H.O. White, the pastor at Rayne, would travel to town to hold services.
W.W. Duson donated a lot, and
construction began on the first church (of any denomination) in Crowley
on October 8, 1888. The Houma church had been sold that year, and
provided some of the funds. The first service was held on Christmas
eve that year. The church wasn’t completed, so members had to sit
on planks. The wood structure, with a tall steeple enclosing a bell,
was completed by February 1890 at the corner of Third Street and Avenue
I.
By 1909, the congregation had
outgrown the church. Plans were made for a new $30,000 church and
ground was broken on Thanksgiving Day 1912. The congregation continued
to meet in the old church (which was moved to Avenue I) until the new church
was completed. The first service in the new church took place on
January 31, 1914. Eleven stained glass windows, made in St. Louis
of German glass, were installed in the church. The pipe organ, which
was installed in 1913, became worn during the years. So in 1965 it
was decided to replace the organ and to remodel the chancel. The
new pedal organ, with twenty-four ranks of pipe, was dedicated on February
18, 1968. |
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