Although the skyline of the city has changed with the competition to build the tallest building in Grand Rapids, one item remains the same – the many steeples of the churches that are the foundation of our ancestors who settled along the banks of the Grand River.
Each of these represents our past and the immigrants that settled in our area to give Grand Rapids the nickname “Furniture City”.
In this series you will follow the Steeple Chase throughout this great city and view the awe inspiring architecture of our forefathers. The distinct architectural styles represent the great churches of Europe from which these immigrants fled to find a new life in the United States.
This is not meant to promote any one religion, but to show how all have blended together within the City of Grand Rapids to make this one great place to live.
New City Fellowship
The area of Grand Rapids referred to as Seymore Square was settled by Dutch immigrants in the 1920’s and the name Seymore Square was formally designated in 1937.
The church building is a bit of a mystery as there is no cornerstone on the building indicating when it as constructed. New bricks appear on the building where typically a cornerstone would be found. The building appears older than the current church occupying this location.
Some online sources suggest that this may have been the home of the Spanish Grand Rapids Seventh Day Adventist Church founded in 1990. Currently the location is home to New City Fellowship which was established in 2014 as an outreach of Harvest Orthodox Presbyterian Church to serve the diverse population of this neighborhood.
Our research found no additional information to help us understand the roots of this steepled church, but we felt that it still deserved to be part of this series.
We welcome any information fellow geocachers can offer.
(Source http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Seymour-Square-Grand-Rapids-MI.html, https://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory/spanishgrandrapidsseventhdayadventistchurch-grandrapids-mi-20735646.html, http://businessfinder.mlive.com/spanish-grand-rapids-seventh-day-adventist-church-grand-rapids-mi.html and http://www.newcitygr.org/about/)