May & Fulton Gospel Hall, IL

The May & Fulton Assembly was where William John McClure first found fellowship in Chicago after arriving from Belfast in 1881, with commendation from the Old Lodge Road Assembly which was his first assembly.  Donald Ross, from Scotland, had located in Chicago in 1879, and had joined with Robert Telfer and Kenneth John Muir in 1880. 

This Assembly first met on Desplains Street, but when Mr. Ross pitched his tent on May Street, the assembly moved into the tent.  Then they moved to Union Park Hall, 517 W. Madison St., where the first Chicago conference was held, and then eventually moved to May & Fulton streets.

Ministers that McClure remembered impacting him at May & Fulton included Donald Ross, Richard Sparks, Donald Munro, John Smith and T.D.W. Muir, with special respect to the first two in terms of influence to him.  

In 1883, the assembly commended McClure to the work of the Lord, and with Andrew McQuiston, a young Northern Irish man who he had met at the Chicago conference, they set out to Toronto for giving ministry meetings.  

This assembly *may* have developed into Avondale Gospel Hall, as Donald Ross was first in this assembly before establishing Avondale.  

Sources

• "William J. McClure: A Beloved Brother and Faithful Minister", by John Trew Dickson, privately printed in 1942 or afterwards, for the author, and distributed thru Bible & Book Store, 820 W. Leonard St., Grand Rapids 4, MI. pp. 28-33;