On December 26, 1826, a meeting of Second Presbyterian Church (later Brick Church) was held to vote on the purchase of property and erection of a building on the west side of the Genesee River. Controversy followed. Ashbel Riley held out for building on the east side of the river and walked out of the meeting, followed by others determined to found a church in East Rochester, as it was then known. On December 29th, the first Sunday School was assembled, and on the last day of the year a worship service was held in School #4 at the corner of what is now Clinton Avenue and Mortimer Street. It is worth noting that Riley and his friend Josiah Bissell owned and were developing land there. 

On January 17, 1827, the meeting from which Third Church was founded took place with twenty-two members, becoming the first permanent church organized on the east side of the river. At that same meeting Joel Parker, a ministerial student at Auburn Seminary, was called as the first minister. On January 30th it was reported that property had been purchased at the north-east corner of Clinton Avenue and Main Street for the erection of a church. The construction of the church is a future story. 

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