The History of the First Christian Church of Hanford, CaliforniaHanford First Christian Church was established as the Church of Christ in 1874 when a small group of people led began meeting together in a nearby schoolhouse. By 1884 they were meeting in a small building on the corner of 8th and Brown. That first meetinghouse was later cut in half and added to either side of a larger sanctuary which was built to take its place in 1892. In the 1950s, we started work on our current site on West Cameron Street.
We have had a rich history of pastors! We started with traveling evangelists and people from our own congregation. Our pastoral history started in 1891 with F.S. Ford (see picture below for full history). After Dennis Lake, we had Lee Brummel (1996-2004), Jim Bradford (interim, 2004-05), Dennis Gartung (2005-08), Dwight Carlson (interim, 2008-09), Tom Warren (2009-23), Steve Fietz (interim, 2023-24), Walter Hudson (interim, 2025), and now we have our first female pastor, Rev Dr Patreza D Newton, who just joined us on August 10, 2025.
We are so excited to start this new chapter in our church’s life and we’d love for you to be a part of it!