Dedicated in 1890, Calvary Presbyterian Church is one of the few remaining houses of worship on Cleveland’s historic “Millionaires Row.” Renowned architect Charles F. Schweinfurth designed the sanctuary in a Romanesque Revival style featuring stained glass windows created by John LaFarge and Louis Comfort Tiffany. In its earliest days, the congregation at Calvary Presbyterian was white, but by the 1950s Calvary had become one of the first fully integrated churches in Cleveland. Church members marched alongside Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1963 March on Washington and provided Dr. King with an office during his time in Cleveland. In 1964, Calvary’s minister Rev. Bruce Klunder was crushed by a bulldozer and killed as he and other church members protested the construction of a segregated school in Cleveland. Cleveland Presbyterian was instrumental in founding Neighbors Organized for Action in Hough to rebuild homes for low-income residents after the 1968 Hough Riots.

Today, New Life at Calvary works with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, feeding 50-80 families each month; provides space to a congregation of West African immigrants from Liberia; and supports incarcerated persons through their prison ministry. Tragically, the church was struck by an EF-1 tornado in 2023, ripping the roofs off the Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, and gym. New Life at Calvary has been working with Cleveland Restoration Society as they work to recover from the tornado. 

A National Fund grant of $175,000 with $175,000 in matching funds raised by the congregation will support critical exterior masonry repairs, including repointing, patching and cleaning the arch stone on the north elevation. 

New Life at Calvary Church Photo by Kreative Kage

First Church in Oberlin