Geneva History Mystery: And the Answer Is, This Building Was a Church

• Editor's note: The ran April 17, and we just neglected to run the answer. So here you go!

The first use of this building was a church in the 1890s.

The Swedish Methodist Church was organized to fill the spiritual needs of a segment of the Swedish population then living in Geneva.  Between 1892 and 1897, there was a great growth in the membership, and the congregation soon outgrew the building.

In 1900, the church bought land at the northeast corner of Hamilton and Third Streets.  The last meeting at the church on First and James Streets was January 18, 1907.  The next day the new church on Hamilton Street was dedicated.

For many years after that, the building was used as a garage owned by Pete Armbrust and his partner, Bernhard Berg.

Duke and Ray Singer’s Garage was also at this location.

In 1982, E. T. Glass and Mirror had a shop in the building. Today, Nova Communications and occupy the building.