Building History

Members of the wealthy, landowning Bixby Family of Long Beach, Margaret Hathaway Bixby (1843-1927) and her husband Jotham Bixby (1831-1917) became benefactors to the first Congregational group to form in the city. Margaret Hathaway Bixby's father, George Whitefield Hathaway (1807-1891), was a noted, abolitionist, Congregationalist minister in New England, and she absorbed from him a love for the church and its teachings. Margaret decided to underwrite a home for the faith in Long Beach. (George W. Hathaway moved to Southern California late in life, dying here in 1891, and he also may have encouraged his daughter to build a new building in which the fledgling congregation could meet.) The Bixbys donated money for land and the building materials for what became known as "Cerritos Hall," a assembly facility first used by the 1st Congregationalist congregation on 04/17/1887. Cerritos Hall was used by the 1st Congregationalists until a new building was erected on the same property in the same site in 1902. Cerritos Hall was moved to another location c. 1901.

PCAD id: 23884