A bit of history is necessary to understand the founding of the Pilgrim Congregational Church on the Near North Side. During the 1870s, Plymouth Congregational Church, under its pastor, Henry A. Stimson, began a series of outreach programs for Scandinavian immigrants, and in 1884 established a local Scandinavian branch of the American Home Missionary Society that was organized in New York in 1826 (A Precious Heritage, p. 69). Its success can be measured by the formation of the Swedish Congregational Ministerial Association in 1898 which by 1920 had over 200 ministers associated with it. As part of its outreach effort, Plymouth Congregational Church established a North Chapel in 1880 at the corner of Washington and 14th Avenue North. By 1885, the congregation had grown large enough to erect a new red brick church that seated 500 people located at the corner of Lyndale and 14th Avenue North. At the time of its dedication on January 12, 1885, the chapel’s name was changed to Pilgrim Congregational Church. It remained at its location until 1922.