Chapter Four
The Forty-third Street Church

By James Wudarczyk

Currently the New Bethel Baptist Church, this edifice at the corner of Forty-third and Summit Streets was originally of Presbyterian denomination. According to Wallace Guy Smeltzer, D.D., in his An Historical Volume Methodism In Western Pennsylvania 1784-1968, this church eventually merged three former congregations, namely Butler Street Methodist Church, McCandless Avenue Methodist Church, and the Forty-third Street Presbyterian Church. This account published in 1969 reported, “The Butler Street Methodist Episcopal Church was organized as part of the Braddocksfield Mission Circuit in 1832. The first Church was built at 3535 Butler Street on a lot given by Peter Dravo. March 1865 the property at the corner of Fortieth and Butler Streets was purchased and the large brick Butler Street Church was built on it. For half a century this was one of the leading Methodist Churches of Pittsburgh. The McCandless Avenue Church first appears in the Pittsburgh conference appointments with Hiram Winnett as the Supply Pastor in 1883. It merged with Butler Street in 1949. In 1961 a merger was effected with the Forty Third Street Presbyterian Church. The Butler Street building was sold and the congregation occupies the building of the former Presbyterian Church changes in the community have brought about the decline of Protestantism in the Lawrenceville community. The merged Church serves a community congregation under Methodist operation. The membership in 1968 was 274.”