San Bernardino Third Ward
When the First Ward was divided in the early1 1950s, we became Third Warders. The Church bought and remodeled a home and adjacent land out on Pacific Avenue, near the new Pacific High School. While we gathered resources to build a new meetinghouse to Church specifications, we held our meetings in the house.

This photo, taken on the April day in 1955 when we broke ground for the first phase (“Cultural Hall”2 and classrooms), shows the building’s four sections: our temporary “chapel” was set up in the leftmost two (a two-car garage), with overflow as needed into the adjacent screened breezeway. Schoolday Seminary and various Sunday classes met in the (rightmost) main house. At left, near the far corner of the staked-in area, would soon stand the main entrance3 from the parking lot to the Cultural Hall, which served as our chapel for some years.
1I don’t seem to have a record of the exact year, but it was the Third Ward bishopric that issued my 1953 Aaronic Priesthood Award.
 2In those days, of course, it was the “recreation hall.” Since then, it seems the tax folks have been more inclined to encourage culture than fun.
3Through that entrance, one Sunday morning in the late summer of 1956, I first caught sight of the lovely Valerie Ann Jorgenson, arriving for Sunday School on the manly arm of my best friend, Don Ellsworth. A monumental, life-changing experience.
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