THE METHODIST CHURCH as it looked in the late 1950s (Wikipedia).

The year 2024 is the 150th anniversary of the founding of Garden Grove in 1874. Here’s the latest in a series about the history of the Big Strawberry. First part of two on local churches.

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

Garden Grove was once renowned for having more churches per capita than any city of its size. It remains a fertile ground for many faiths, and has been that way since it began as a village in the 19th century.

It’s also known as the home of one of the world’s most famous: the Christ Cathedral, formerly known as the Crystal Cathedral.

Garden Grove’s first house of worship was the First (now United) Methodist Church in 1875. Started in a worshipper’s parlor, it moved to a new sanctuary and has remained in its place at what is now Main Street and Stanford Avenue, although it has been rebuilt several times.

In 1895 a Seventh Day Adventist church (and later a school) was established on Ninth Street, followed by the Alamitos Friends Church on Magnolia Street, south of Chapman Avenue. Later renamed Garden Grove Friends Church, it was the first “Quaker” church to be established in Orange County in 1891. The campus is now home to the Lambertian Ministry Center, connected to the Christ Cathedral.

The First Baptist Church was established in 1897. It’s now located next to the Village Green Park on Euclid Street.

Devotees of Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints – usually known as “Mormons” established a community on Buaro Street, which is the site of one of three LDS campuses in Garden Grove, one on Stanford Avenue (near Brookhurst Street) and another on Valley View Street.

Century Boulevard was home to a congregation of the Four Square Gospel Church, founded by celebrity evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in the 1920s. It’s now known as Living Word. It was highly visible because of the red neon cross on the steeple.