The History of the Elkins Park Church

The Elkins Park Church is an evangelical congregation of the Presbyterian Church USA situated on Cedar Road between Jenkintown and Fox Chase Roads in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It will formally celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2017. The church, however, has witnessed to the Lord Jesus in lower Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia for well over a century.

In 1896 members of the Ashbourne Presbyterian Church (est. 1878) in Cheltenham, PA acted on their vision to plant a Sunday School mission in McKinley, PA some three miles away. Under the leadership of M.Y. Smith the East Ogontz Union Sunday School Union flourished until, in 1912, they built their first permanent structure at the corner of Cadwalader and Cypress Avenues. By 1917 there was a thriving congregation of working class people from McKinley who organized themselves as the M.Y. Smith Presbyterian Church.

In 1930 the building was renovated and re-modeled under the leadership of the newly installed pastor, the Rev. Robert Tignor. At this time the congregation acted to change the name of the church from M.Y. Smith to the Olivet Presbyterian Church. The early 1950's brought significant change to the neighborhoods around this small community-based church. For decades most of the congregation walked to the church in the center of town. But as the church grew it became clear that the facility could not accommodate the growth experienced by the community. The congregation made the bold decision to move from the heart of McKinley to a major thoroughfare of the wider neighborhood. With the purchase of the McCollough farm on Cedar Road in 1953 the Olivet Church was transformed from a neighborhood church into a community church broadening its reach into Lower Abington, Jenkintown and Cheltenham, Rockledge and Northeast Philadelphia.

In 1965, the parent congregation at the Ashbourne Church closed and merged with the Olivet congregation to become the Olivet-Ashbourne Presbyterian Church. In 1970 an influx of members from the Dales Memorial Presbyterian Church in East Oak Lane joined the Olivet-Ashbourne Church so that by 1974, rather than add more hyphens, the congregation incorporated under the name, Elkins Park United Presbyterian Church.

Regardless of its name or location, the Elkins Park Church has sought to bring Jesus Christ to our neighbors. Demonstrating the impact of that good news on the human heart in its witness and actions, the congregation invites you to seek the One who came to earth seeking you.