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What opened as a church in 1952 and has grown to a campus with a large sanctuary and a thriving school, went back to its roots this morning.

The original Community Presbyterian Church building on El Pintado Road was dedicated as a restored chapel this morning, a lovely house of worship that can hold up to 150 people for a wedding, a memorial or other small service.

Pastor Scott Farmer spoke at the dedication to thank the congregation for making the renovations possible. He also asked for a show of hands of those who were present when the church opened in 1952, and many hands were raised.

Elder Rhea Serpan thanked the Town of Danville and the neighbors for their cooperation in the church's building projects. The neighbors held many meetings with church representatives to fine-tune the plans in consideration for them.

Serpan noted that the chapel has been restored to its original condition, only better.

"It has been restored to its original size but with state of the art lighting," he said.

The completion of the chapel concluded Phase 1 of Imagine, the church's building project. Phase I also included new parking lots, a Library and Book Shoppe, mission projects and a new playground for its San Ramon Valley Christian Academy.

"We built the proverbial level playing field," said Serpan.

The Presbyterian Church was the first house of worship built in Danville, dedicated in 1876, a classic New England-style church on Front Street. Danville residents at that time were Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists and other Christians who all took a vote and decided the first church would be Presbyterian, according to historian Beverly Lane.

That wooden structure was destroyed by fire in 1932. It was replaced by a Mission-style church, but the congregation moved to the current campus and dedicated its new church in 1952. The Mission-style church is now the Town Meeting Hall.

Renovations on El Pintado Road took place in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s as the congregation grew. In the 1990s, the church expanded to San Ramon and also opened a branch in the Tassajara Valley.

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