1902 - Mrs. Lina Hagy Potts called together women of six Methodist Churches and through their leadership the Greater Dallas Board of City Missions was founded. In September the first settlement worker, Estelle Haskins, was employed to minister to the influx of immigrants of 17 nationalities to Dallas.

1903 - In April, a settlement home was opened to minister to some 3,000 people in the area near Lamar and Field Streets.

1906 - A small church was purchased and a preacher employed. A Mother's Club was formed by Mrs. Henry Dorsey.

1908 - An Advisory Board of three men from each local church made possible the building of Wesley Chapel and improved the location of the Center with rooms for kindergarten, clubs, office, clinic, playground.

1909 - The Board established Wesley House in a ten-room house on Cockrell Street in South Dallas. We were successful in being the catalyst to have the county build a Juvenile Detention Center to avoid housing young people with adults.

1911 - Wesley House served as a detention home for children under the Juvenile Court. The Board was instrumental in getting the County Commissioners to build a Juvenile Detention Center.

1915 - Deaconess Rhoda Dragoo won the right for Mexican children to attend Dallas Public Schools. Younger students attended her kindergarten classes and learned English.

1924 - Goodwill Industries was started by the Greater Dallas Board of City Missions in a building next to the Cockrell Street Center.

1930 - A Mission Center was established at the corner of Floyd and Liberty Streets in East Dallas.  Mrs. Maria Moreno had a kindergarten, clubs for children and mothers, clinic, Sunday School and church services.

1935 - Hattie Rankin crossed the Trinity River to Eagle Ford Heights to minister to Mrs. Steve Davis, mother of Floyd and Ray Hamilton, and learned of the plight of the children and youth in West Dallas. A chapel was built at 3104 Crossman.

1941 - The Rankin Center built the first gymnasium in our West Dallas community.

1958 - The first Boy Scout Troop is started by Eagle Scout Louis Strickland.

1961 - Work at the Latin American Church is turned over to the local congregation. Community work is concentrated in two centers: Wesley Center in "Little Mexico" on Akard and Rankin Center on Crossman in West Dallas.

1976 - Wesley Center was sold to North Dallas Kiwanis Club as the toll road had altered the area. The dental clinic continued but later the building was sold and in 1984 it was razed. The Wesley Center merged with the Rankin Center and became the Wesley-Rankin Community Center.

1977 - El Buen Samaritano Methodist Church, adjoining the Crossman campus is purchased by Wesley-Rankin and renamed by the Senior Citizens as Casa Feliz (Happy House). The senior citizens continue to meet there five days a week for lunch and fellowship.

1978 - The Kindergarten becomes a licensed Day Care Center for 2 to 5 year olds. In 1984 it was extended to include eighteen-month old toddlers.

1978 - The name officially becomes Wesley-Rankin Community Center, chartered by State of Texas in 1904, as Dallas Board of City Missions. On one campus there is a day care center, senior citizens center, recreation center (gym and playground) offering programs for all ages in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.

1985 - A $600,000 building fund campaign begins with plans for replacing two fifty-year old frame buildings with a two-story office, activity, day-care structure and renovation of the gymnasium built in 1941.

1987 - The building campaign goes over the top, aided by a challenge grant from The Meadows Foundation. Jimmy Davis served as Chair of the Building Fund and Charles G. Cullum as the Honorary Chair.

1988 - Dedication of debt-free facilities in November. Building Fund Chair, Jimmy Davis, is honored with the naming of the building. The gym renovation was named in honor of former Boy Scout leader, Louis Strickland. The new building allowed Wesley-Rankin to double the service capacity.

1989 - A new church, Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Fellowship, is started by the North Texas Conference, with Casa Feliz (3107 Winnetka) as its meeting place.

1993 - Dallas Head Start enters partnership with Wesley-Rankin to provide childcare for eighty pre-schoolers.

1994 - Bridge to College Scholarship program begins.

1996 - Proyecto Adelante legal services share the facilities at Wesley-Rankin as they serve the rapidly growing immigrant population. They moved from W-R to larger facilities in January 1999.

1998 - Wesley-Rankin's Summer Bible School Model was expanded to become Project Transformation, a conference wide effort in six urban locations with 30 college-age interns in mission.

1999 - A small church located at 3326 Winnetka Ave. was purchased and renovated on the corner of our neighborhood park and rededicated as our Youth Center. The Casa Feliz kitchen was remodeled so that we may serve family style lunches to our senior citizens, GED students and their pre-school children.

2000 - A building campaign began to double the size of the Youth Center and dedicate it as Wesley-Rankin's Sarah E. Wilke Youth Center at Benito Juarez Park.

2002 - Wesley-Rankin Community Center celebrates A Century of Service. Contractors hired to build expansion to Sarah E. Wilke Youth Center.