South Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church became so overcrowded that two new churches were formed, the James Street Methodist Episcopal Church and the Ross Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church.
The James Street Church began when the South Avenue Methodist members organized a Sunday school at the top of Maplewood Avenue in what was the former firemen’s hose house. The first Sunday school service took place on July 3, 1904. The attendance increased as Sunday school continued into the fall and the winter with the building being winterized. The building was called the Vincent Chapel of the South Avenue Methodist Church.
On December 17, 1905 congregation dedicated the Swissvale Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church on Swissvale Avenue at the corner with James Street and opposite from Semple Public School. It was renamed the James Street Methodist Episcopal to prevent confusion with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Swissvale.
The church added twelve rooms and a gymnasium in 1925.
The congregation merged with the Ross Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 1965.
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church of Wilkinsburg bought the building on October 29, 1965. Mt. Calvary moved from their first church at 1036 Penn Avenue.
Norman Carlysle Young and Naomi Kathleen Ivey Horner, compilers and editors, Church Records: Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, updated June 30, 2021, p. 795.
https://www.wpaumc.org/files/resource/historical_records/church+records/church+records+pittsburgh+district.pdf
Wilkinsburg Public Library Digital Archives:
“James St. Methodists Mark Their 35th Anniversary, Church Was First Organized In Old Hose-House At Top of Maplewood Avenue; Has Just Reduced Its Dept By $12,000,” October 18, 1940.