HISTORY OF HPSDA
On the South East corner of 50th and Ellis Avenue, in the Heart of the Hyde Park area, stands a sandy brick structure like an oven-yeasted loaf of bread. As Jesus fed 5,000, nearly 2,000 years ago, so this small loaf nourishes a small number of spiritually hungry souls with the bread of life.
Like the multitude in Christ's time, the Hyde Park membership is made up of ordinary family folk, and sprinkled within the circle, you will also find a Doctor, Nurses, Teachers, Secretaries, Laboratory Technicians, Musicians, Business Men, and many other professions, but we can fully say that Christianity's eloquent simplicity is still being dispensed in our church today. The folk who constitute Hyde Park's membership purchased and paid for this church with no endowments, no generous money gifts, and with no large money loans. To be able to celebrate that occasion was evidence that the church prevailed over church poverty, hostility from without, and dissension from within. What was not so evident was the manner of it's triumph. From whence had it come? What were the milestones along its journey, and what were the pitfalls? Much of Hyde Park's
history is an inspiring account that will never be forgotten by some, and echoing in some respects the heroic upward struggle of a few faithful members of the Shiloh SDA Church who felt the need for a second church here in this great metropolitan city of Chicago. And so it came to pass in the Fall of 1949 members became a company known as the “SECOND DAY COMPANY" which constituted some of the old well known families of the parent church - SHILOH; with H.S. Baskerville in charge of the Company. As the membership began to grow the members were not content to remain a company and thus a request by some of the officers was made to the Lake Region Conference President to organize the company into a church. So on June 7, 1952 at the Y. W.C.A. on the Corner of 46th & South Parkway under the Leadership of Elder M.L. Rice - Lake Union Conference President, Elder H.W. Kibble - Lake Region Conference President and Elder F. N. Crowe - Lake Region Conference Treasurer, the Second SDA Company became the Second Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Elders Rice & Kibble appointed Elder M.G. Nunez as the Minister in charge of the newly organized Church and also, appointed Michael A. Blanchard as the Treasurer. After a short stay at the YWCA the need for more space and a “churchier” atmosphere became evident and this led the officers to seek a more desirable place of worship. Because of the prevailing situation, we became tenants in the community chapel of the Greater Bethesda Baptist Church on 53rd & Michigan Avenue.
Under the capable leadership of Elder M.G.Nunez, who was a shrewd administrator and a gifted speaker, the church grew and prospered to the point that he and the other officers felt the congregation was strong enough to purchase a church home of their own. This intention was made known to the Conference President. On October 6, 1954 the Conference Committee voted to grant the Second SDA Church permission to purchase the property on the corner of 50th & Ellis Avenue for $31,000.00. After the burning of tons of energy and the paying off of a $21,000.00 mortgage, we celebrated the fulfillment of another dream, but we could not stop dreaming. Our congregation could not settle back and give way to smugness and complacency because a greater dream, because the building of a new church home
was yet to be fulfilled. After settling in the new church home, our next move was to change the name of the Church to correspond with the neighborhood. As the result of much prayer and study, the name Hyde Park Seventh-day Adventist Church was accepted by the entire church membership. "He who refuses to learn from History is doomed to repeat its mistakes.” A famous scholar once observed, “Without detailed written records, man, at his best, is at the mercy of memory and word-of-mouth; at his worst, a race of ants building empires on trial, error, and instinct." That history helps men to stand on the shoulders of their fathers and perhaps see a little further over the horizon that can be abundantly documented. It is fitting, therefore, that the Hyde Park SDA Church should take a backward look at itself, not to seek out its failures so as to lapse into perpetual remorse, nor to enumerate its successes so as to degenerate into a spasm of selfcongratulation, but to see itself steadily and to see itself as a whole. Hyde Park's History is not just one cup of water; it is a river, overflowing, widening its banks, and branching off into newer directions. Now perched on the corner of 46th and Drexel Boulevard, we heed the call of God and echoes of our ancestors to never stop dream. To never stop growing and walking in the purpose for which God planted this church. The branches are still growing and the story continues… Thanks for your contributions and support on the journey of being the place where the Gospel transforms lives.
