A glimpse of the past

From time to time, the Lord sends someone to the corner of 9th and McKinley who has been there before ... maybe someone from the earliest days of the building when it was built more than 90 years ago.

Recently, Mrs. Dorothy Cooley McLemore filled in a piece of the mission's history. After a chat with her friend, Jeannie Spence, about the volunteer work she does at Cross & Crown, Mrs. McLemore realized this mission was located in the building where her mother grew up going to church!

She also remembered a special keepsake that she had - an ornate presentation plate stamped with a picture of the building. She knew it must have a new home. She beautifully framed it and recently presented it to Paul Whitmire at the mission where it now hangs on the wall in the office.

Here's what the back of the plate says:
The Second Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City was organized May 1, 1904, and held services on West Main Street until it moved to the present location in May 1910. Services were held in the basement rooms until completion of the sanctuary. The cornerstone was laid in October 1910, and the sanctuary and building were completed and dedicated on December 17, 1911.

Here's what the placard on the wall next the picture says:
The plate was donated to Cross & Crown Mission by Dorothy Cooley McLemore, daughter of Orenda Elizabeth Lutz Cooley. Orenda was born May 14, 1904, (the same month and year the Second Prebyterian Church was founded), in Manchester, Massachusetts, and moved to Oklahoma City with her parents and brother whuile she was an infant. She was an active lifelong member of the Second Prebyterian Church. All four of her children attended church with her, and sometime later, two granddaughters and one grandson attended.

These glimpses into the past of this building serve as proof of God's faithfulness, and shows how a building that had been forgotten, that had it's very foundation crumbling just five short years ago and was doomed for demolition, can rise up again to proclaim the Lord's favor and to serve His people.