History of Broadway United Methodist Church

   One hundred years ago a small group of people in the Broadway area caught sight of a vision. They saw an opportunity to serve God and man by ministering to the European immigrant people, especially the Bohemians, who began flooding into the Broadway area in 1872. They established a Sunday school in a small modest frame house located on Trumbull Street and Warren Alley. The location was described as being "beside Morgan's cow pasture on the old plank road."

   On September 1,1872, this work was formally organized as the Broadway Union Mission Sunday School by the following person: O. M. Stafford, T. M. Irving, Mrs. Julia Morgan, William Ward, Edward Rose, Mrs. Hattie Rose, Edmund Stafford, Mrs. Jennie Stafford, Miss Louise Stafford and Cecilia Ballou. This Sunday School was probably affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church Because the Sunday School Union was the church school arm of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

      On November 19, 1872, this Union Mission Sunday School Became the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church or the Broadway Mission as it was sometimes called. The following were elected trustees: O. M. Stafford, Hart A. Massey, John Tt. Sencabaugh, E. Cc. Pope, Thomas Irving, of the Erie Conference, which met from September 11 to 17, 1872, two ministers, Reverend Cornelius N. Grant and Reverend Ezra S. Gillette were appointed to Broadway.

    First  United Methodist Church of Cleveland Claims that Broadway was one of the suburban churches in the city that was mothered by First Church. There is some evidence to support this claim, as for example, several of the original trustees of Broadway were also members and officers of First Church and they did not five up their membership in First Church. However, conclusive proof of this claim waits more research.

    The church grew slowly by the Sunday School expanded rapidly. In the conference journal for 1873 only 12 probationary members and 30 full members of the church were reported, but there were 24 teachers and 375 pupils in the Sunday School reported. Soon the little house which was sometimes called a "wigwam," became overcrowded so within a year of the mission's founding a new building was started. The land for this church, located at 4309 Broadway, at the corner of Gallup Avenue, S. E., was donated by Jonas Stafford, father of Oliver M. Alphonso Holly and Jabesth Gallup. In this building an unusual ministry was carried out. One of the most important tasks carried out was the training of the newly arrived immigrants, especially the children and youth, in the process of becoming adjusted to their new home, a process which wad called Americanization.

    Mr. Stafford, who taught a class of older boys, discovered that although they were eager to attend Sunday School and to learn, They were occasionally distracted by a ball game on Sunday. Therefore, a ball team was organized and Broadway's athletic tradition was started. Also it was discovered that music made a great impact upon the Bohemians so appropriate words were written and fitted to the melodies of operas and other familiar old country songs. These songs were greatly loved.

    Soon the ministry to the Bohemians was expanded with the establishment of the church's Bohemian department in 1890 under the leadership of Reverend Frank Tauchen, In 1893 James Louzecchy, a student, was assigned as a missionary to the Bohemians working out of Broadway church. The next year he was assigned directly to Broadway as an associate pastor, He remained until 1897 when he left to attend school. Reverend Matthew Hnuta assumed the leadership of the Bohemian department in 1899 and in 1912 Reverend Louzechy returned and remained at Broadway until 1947; he continued to serve for years after he retired. In the twenties, the Rockefeller Foundation conducted a survey of some of the leading churches in the country and declared that Broadway was the greatest bi-lingual church in the country. However, Broadway was not just an English-Bohemian congregation; at one time there were seven different nationalities represented mission's