Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church / Ninth Street Christian Reformed Church

Dedicated on June 25, 1856, this church was built under the leadership of the Reverend Albertus C. Van Raalte, founder and first pastor of the Holland colony. Jacobus Schrader designed the Greek Revival style building using native hand-hewn oak for the sills and crossbeams. The copper rooster on the belfry, symbolizing Peter’s denial and pride, is commonly found on Calvinist churches in the Netherlands. The city’s oldest extant church, often referred to as the Pillar Church, was one of the few buildings in Holland to survive the devastating fire of 1871. The congregation of the Pillar Church was organized in 1847 and worshipped in a log church at the site of the Pilgrim Home Cemetery. Composed of immigrants in secession from the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, the church was without denominational ties until it joined the Reformed Church in America in 1850. A division occurred within its congregation in 1882 and the building was assumed by the seceding majority. The minority reestablished itself as the First Reformed Church. In December 1884, the Pillar Church affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church. Over the years its members, and those of daughter congregations, have sought to fulfill the ideals which inspired the founders to seek a new home in America: freedom of religion; purity of doctrine; and a Christian education for their children in home, school and church.