Annals: Brief History of Waverly Presbyterian Church

The Waverly Presbyterian Church had its beginning in June, 1880, when Miss Lavinia M. Smith opened a Sunday School in her home on Peebles Street, Park Place, for the purpose of instructing a little girl by the name of Josephine Reed, then living in her home, and others of her playmates, whom the little girl invited to attend Miss Smith’s School.

So rapidly did the number increase that larger quarters were sought and found on Center Alley, now known as Mifflin Way, Wilkinsburg. Here it became known as the Park Place Presbyterian Sunday School. The next year (1881) it moved to a vacant storeroom on what was then the Cricket Grounds, in the vicinity of East End Avenue and Forbes Street. Here regular Wednesday evening meetings were held for adults and a Ladies’ Bible Class was formed. This class interested itself in the work of the school and raised money sufficient to erect a small chapel on a lot on Waverly Lane, given by George and Mary Peebles. This chapel was dedicated October 1, 1882, Rev. R. B. Ewing officiating.

Twelve years later (1894) application was made to the Presbytery of Pittsburgh for a church organization which was granted, and the church was incorporated under the name of the East End Presbyterian Church, with fifty-two charter members.

Rev. H. O. Gilson was the first regular pastor, being installed in 1894 and continuing to 1898. In 1897, during the pastorate of Rev. Gilson, a new buff brick building was erected at the corner of Waverly and Peebles Streets and was dedicated December 5 of the same year. The pastors succeeding Mr. Gilson were Messrs. Alfred Nicholson, A. B. Van Fossen, Charles E. Snoke, J. Kinsey Smith, Thomas C. Pears, Jr. and Jarvis M. Cotton, present pastor (1936).

During the pastorate of the Rev. Charles E. Snoke (1909-1915), the East End Presbyterian Church and the Grace Presbyterian Church, located north of Penn Avenue on Brushton Avenue, united. Upon this union the name was changed to Waverly Presbyterian Church and so remains at the present time. During the pastorate of the Rev. T. C. Pears, Jr. 1923–1933, at the solicitation of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh, the church changed its location from the corner of Waverly and Peebles Streets to the corner of Forbes and Braddock Avenues, where it erected a beautiful church of Indiana limestone, thus completing its third building in the fifty-four years of its history.