The merged congregations then began the project of building a new building on the site of the Woodward Avenue Christian Church, with the new congregation taking the name Central Woodward Christian Church. In a speech given in 1975 on the fiftieth anniversary of the announced merger, Jones's son, Willis R. Jones, noted that the two congregations brought different strengths. Central Christian Church, which lay on Second Avenue, had among its members a number of civic and industrial leaders, along with the financial support of the Philip Gray family, while the Woodward Avenue congregation, besides having a prime location, had a large contingent of younger members, including youth. Detroit, by then the fifth largest city in America, now had a significant Disciples of Christ presence.