The Church of the Nazarene of Hemet was established in 1919 when "Dad" Smith and Brother Rogers gathered some believers and friends and began holding services in the Smith home. This group grew and eventually began to meet in store-front property on Florida Avenue. Then, the congregation purchased and moved into a church located on the corner of Franklin Street and Saint John Place.
This new church building served the small congregation well, but with the growth of the faithful fold, the building began to bulge and in 1967 they made a decision to expand the facility. That expansion effort is responsible for much of what we see in our former facility. With more people moving into the San Jacinto Valley the need for additional space soon became a necessity. in 1980 Smith Hall was enlarged and the outdoor stairway was enclosed. The church building has remained essentially the same since then.
As number of members grew, more space was required to house additional Sunday School classrooms, meeting rooms, and office space. To answer those needs, the two parsonage homes (the "Thompson House" and the "Franklin House") were transformed into additional classrooms. The number of Pastoral Staff positions increased presenting a need for a larger church office. The property at the corner of Latham Avenue and Thompson Street was purchased and the offices were moved to a new location.
The Hemet Church of the Nazarene was still experiencing quite a growth spurt and soon realized it was time to look dream a little bigger. In October of 2005 we broke ground at our new site on the corner of Florida and Soboba. In 2007, construction began and continued up until our very first day here in March of 2009. The rest is as you say....history.
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