How The Church Was Founded

Excerpts from First Presbyterian Church of Sun City 1963 to 1988:

In 1959 the Del E. Webb Company was busy constructing a nine-hole golf course, a shopping center with a supermarket and five model homes just east of and adjacent to Youngtown.

Youngtown, the country's first full-fledged retirement community, was begun in 1954 and those purchasing there had to be 60 years of age. Youngtown had about 100 residents.  Sun Citians were welcome to worship in Youngtown but they wanted their own churches and an interdenominational one.

The United Church of Sun City was the first to be completed. Others followed soon after or were on the drawing board. Some Lutherans and a group of Episcopalians were holding services in the Town Hall (now Fairway Center) awaiting completion of their respective buildings. This was early in 1962.

On October 7, 1962, a group of Presbyterians met for worship at the Town Hall under the guidance of the Church Extension Board of the Presbytery of Phoenix. The Rev. Claude L. Morton, acting Executive Secretary of the Synod of Arizona, carried much of the responsibility for guiding the work of a board of dedicated laymen. This work was begun with the permission of the Phoenix Valley of the Sun Council of Churches.

A site was purchased by the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. by the Church Extension Board. The site was located near 103rd Avenue and Alabama Avenue.

~Donna Roth