Grand Rapids has been a city of churches even before it was officially a city at all. From the first settlers who encountered the natives of the Grand River, the Odawa Indians, missions were instituted for both religious and educational reasons. The first church was built on the west bank of the Grand River in 1833. This was a mission site and it was called the Catholic Indian Chapel, and it was by Reverend Frederic Baraga.

From this time, churches of all different denominations began to root themselves in the newly founded city of Grand Rapids. After the Catholic Church came the Christian Reformed Churches, followed by Lutherans and African-American Baptist. It was not until later that the offshoots of the English-speaking Protestant churches came along. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Christian Church and Northern Baptists were a large section of early American religion. This makes Grand Rapids churches unique, because they did not fit the Anglomorphic pattern that so much of the United States did in developing religious roots in a city.

The church reference collection contains many different important and interesting documents from an array of churches throughout the Grand Rapids area. The first series in the collection contains items that contain general information on churches or denominations. The second series is made up of documents from a large variety of specific churches. These documents include short histories, church directories, historic sermons, financial records and minutes of board meetings. Names of many of the churches in Grand Rapids have been altered throughout the years, so the “Gathered At The River” provided much for the proper and current names of churches. “Gathered At the River” has a collection to itself, as does the Fountain Street Church, though the collections are related in subject matter.