Church of the Servant (Mennonite), 1991

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Creator

Collection

Portland Press Herald Still-Film Negatives Collection

Document Type

Still Image

Call number of Original

PH 8 SEP 1990 and PH 2 MAR 1991

Contributing Institution

Portland Public Library Special Collections & Archives

Location

Portland, Cumberland, Maine, USA

Creation Date

9-8-1990

Format of Original

35mm gelatin silver negatives

Description

Top image: Full exterior view of Church of the Servant (Mennonite church), 35 Lafayette Street, from southwest.
Bottom image: Portrait of Rev. Bruce D. Martin, pastor of the Church of the Servant.

Rev. Martin, with a small group of Mennonite Christians, responded to the poverty statistics in the 1980 U.S. Census, and relocated from Indiana to create a community church on Munjoy Hill (in 1983), and teen drop-in center and social outreach called The Root Cellar. The Root Cellar outgrew the congregation, and eventually the Church of the Servant disbanded (in 1997). The congregants made The Root Cellar into a nondenominational social outreach and youth activities center, later moving to a storefront at 94 Washington Avenue (expanded and rebuilt in 2001).
The church building at 35 Lafayette Street was given to a Congolese Christian congregation.
[View of 35 Lafayette Street in 1985, when the building was home to the Munjoy Hill Church of God.]


Top photo published in the Portland Press Herald, on 8 September 1990.
Bottom photo published in the Portland Press Herald, on 2 March 1991.

A Church of the Servant newsletter, from June 1985 (also describing the origins of the church and of the Root Cellar) can be downloaded from the Additional Files link, below)

Recommended Citation

"Church of the Servant (Mennonite), 1991" (1990). Businesses & Buildings - Portland Newspapers (Guy Gannett) Still Film Negatives. 154.
https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/pphnegs_images_business/154