On the second Sabbath of February, (Feb. 14), 1858, a Sabbath School was opened in two second-story rooms of the house 2135 South Street, with twenty-seven scholars and two teachers.

It was not long before the rooms, halls and stairways were crowded with scholars, and the question what to do with the children became a serious one. The erection of a tent was resolved upon, and on the 18th of July, 1858, a tent, erected on the north side of South Street, west of Twenty-first Street, was opened for religious services, and a sermon preached in the morning by Rev. Dr. Challen. In the afternoon over three hundred children, with many of their parents, assembled in the new school-room. The evening service was a very precious one, a blessed earnest of better things to come. The canvas church was crowded with a motley audience. Old people tottering on the verge of the grave, mothers with children in their arms, young men and maidens, all eagerly listened to the Gospel as there preached.

So great was the success of the work during the summer months, that a portion of the lot on which the tent was pitched was purchased from Mr. R. Dunning, who had kindly given the use of the ground for the tent; and on the 18th of October, the corner-stone for a chapel was laid, with appropriate services. After the history of the enterprise had been read by Mr. John Wanamaker, the superintendent, addresses were delivered by Rev. Drs. Leyburn, Brainerd, Chambers and McLeod.

During the winter, and while the chapel was being built, the school met, first, in the depot of the Passenger Railway, and afterwards in the public school-house on Twenty-third Street. The chapel cost about $3,700 and measured forty by sixty feet.