Church History

Today’s Woodside Community Church began as an effort of several men from different churches around our present area in 1874. They had been concerned that there was no significant Gospel witness in the Woodside area – an area with far more “woods” than today. They started a Sunday School in 1874, which eventually began meeting over a carpenter’s shop near present-day 56th Street and Woodside Avenue. As this religious school grew in attendance, they added a preaching service and a prayer service. In 1880, they decided to organize into a local church. The new church continued renting space above the carpenter shop.

In 1885 the church purchased some lots and built a church building at the corner where Woodside Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, and 58th Street meet (the intersection where Little Cheer’s Pizza and the Bagels Plus are today).

Historical View: The original wooden church structure built in 1885 at Woodside Ave, Roosevelt Ave & 58th Street.

The church building at that site was a traditional wooden church structure with steep steps rising from walkway to the church’s front door. In 1887, they officially incorporated as “The First Baptist Church of Woodside, Long Island”. (Queens did not become its own county until 1889).

When the elevated train was built along Roosevelt Avenue around 1916, the noise became an almost unbearable hindrance to the worship services and other activities. So a new location was sought out. The church purchased a swampy piece of land on what was then Manson Place & Betts Avenue (today's 58th Street & 41st Avenue), and a new building was completed by 1925. The church changed its name in 1926 to “Woodside Community Church (Baptist),” emphasizing that it was a church that welcomed all true believers of any Protestant denomination from the community, but the church would be distinctly Baptist in its theology and practice.

Today we are a multi-national church committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching God’s Word, and reaching others with the Gospel.