Welsh Presbyterian Church was a bilingual Welsh/English congregation in the

Pico-Union Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name "Pico-Union" refers to the neighborhood that surrounds the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to ...

neighborhood of

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, founded in 1888 and dissolved in 2012. WindowsatWelshChurchLA2007

History

The Welsh Church in Los Angeles was founded in 1888 by Rev. David Hughes (1833–1903). Hughes, born in Wales, founded two separate congregations in the city, preaching English sermons to one, and Welsh sermons to the other, every Sunday. Rev. E. L. Jones of Denver was installed as pastor in 1910, when the church was meeting at 438 Crocker Street, and holding weekly Sunday services in Welsh and English. In 1926, the Welsh Church moved into a building at 1153 Valencia Street, once occupied by the conservative Jewish congregation still known as Sinai Temple. In the 1980s, despite limited resources, the congregation undertook

seismic retrofitting Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent exp ...

of the church building, rather than allow it to be demolished as unsafe. BannerSignageWelshChurch2007

In 2012, the church's congregation had dwindled to about ten active members. It continued to hold Welsh-language worship services, concerts, and cultural events into its last years, but had not had a full-time pastor since 1964. The Welsh Presbyterian Church was dissolved as a church in December 2012. The building was sold again, to Craig Taubman, and now is home to the multifaith Pico Union Project. Between 2014 and 2016 the church was used by the

Welsh League of Southern California Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

for their

Gymanfa Ganu A Cymanfa Ganu (, ''Singing Festival''), is a Welsh festival of sacred hymns, sung with four part harmony by a congregation, usually under the direction of a choral director. The Cymanfa Ganu movement was launched in 1859 at Bethania Chapel in ...

events.

Building

The Welsh Church building was built in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style in 1909, and is the oldest remaining

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

building in Los Angeles. It has been recognized as a Historic-Cultural Monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, and contains a historic pipe organ build by Murray M. Harris in 1909.

In popular culture

Members of the Welsh Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles were recruited to appear and sing in the 1941 film adaptation of

How Green Was My Valley ''How Green Was My Valley'' is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own persona ...

.Robbin Coons
"Old Welsh Songs Plentiful in 'How Green Was My Valley'"
''Big Spring Daily Herald'' (July 27, 1941): 16. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

References

{{coord, 34.0457, -118.2743, type:landmark_region:US-CA, display=title Churches in Los Angeles 1888 establishments in California Welsh-American history 2012 disestablishments in California