The EUCLID AVE. CHRISTIAN CHURCH, begun on 4 July 1843, became one of the city's largest DISCIPLES OF CHRIST congregations. Members of the Disciples Church in Euclid (which originated in the FRANKLIN CIRCLE CHURCH OF CHRIST) desired a church near their DOAN BROOK neighborhood. At an assembly in a maple grove near EUCLID AVE. and E. 105th St., 30 conversions took place and plans were laid for a new church. Within a month the congregation requested formal dismissal from the mother church. They met in homes until 1848, when a church was constructed on Euclid between Doan (E. 105th) and Republic (E. 101st). At the turn of the century, the church moved to a green stone building at 9990 Euclid. George Kramer designed the exterior; J. R. Lamb Studios created the interior woodwork and windows. Peak membership was reached in 1929, when 130 of its 2,088 members left to form the Heights Christian Church in Shaker Hts. As the neighborhood changed, most of the fewer than 900 members commuted from EAST CLEVELAND and CLEVELAND HTS. In 1955 the Euclid Ave. Christian Church moved to 3663 Mayfield Rd. in Cleveland Hts. The old church building was sold to the East Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the first African American church to hold services on Euclid Ave. Since 1977 Dr. A. Houston Bowers has served as pastor of the Euclid Ave. Christian Church, which in 1995 had a membership of 650.
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See also RELIGION.