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Historical Profile: Oakdale Park CRC

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Oakdale CRC, was organized in 1890 under the sponsorship of Eastern Ave. Oakdale was the eighth Grand Rapids CRC congregation.

The 1890 U.S. Census found just over 60,000 city residents, again nearly twice as many as a decade earlier. The Dutch-born population had also increased, but for the first time at a rate well below that of the city. Now there were 8,275 Dutch-born in Grand Rapids, just 14% of the urban population. Although this was the end of a great decade for Dutch immigration, the key factor for the Dutch Reformed is that they had become primarily American-born by 1890.

Oakdale Park church website

Locations

961 Hancock Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI (1891-1963, new building 1905)
1313 East Butler Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507 (built 1963)

Interactive Google map showing church locations.

Pastors

G. A. De Haan, 1892-95
Foppe M. Ten Hoor, 1896-1900
H. M Vander Ploeg, 1901-03
L. Berkhof, 1904-06
Y. P. De Jong, 1907-11
William P. Van Wyk, 1911-22
H. Kuiper, 1923-25
J. M. Vande Kieft, 1925-32
J. Zeeuw, 1932-35
W. Hendricksen, 1935-42
J. Griffioen, 1943-48
P. Y. De Jong, 1948-52
J. H. Piersma, 1953-56
J. Guichelaar, 1956-64
C. Bolt, 1966-71
W. Heynen, 1971-73
H. G. Vanden Einde, 1974-79
William Vanden Bosch, 1979-present
Dean Deppe, 1984-85
Rayfield Benton Jr., 1996
George Davis

Neland Ave., 1915, cosponsored with Sherman Street
Madison Square, 1970, cosponsored with Fuller Ave.
Oakdale Neighbors, 1996

Membership

Green (lower) line shows membership in families; blue (middle), professing members; red (top), total members; and magenta (thin), non-professing members. Note effect of launching neighboring Boston Square CRC in 1942.

Source: Yearbooks of the Christian Reformed Church. Dates are year prior to publication date since data is gathered at the end of one year and published in the next.

For more membership data, click here. View maps showing Hancock and Butler locations, or page showing both maps.

Go to Grand Rapids geographic index or chronological index.

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