The congregation was established by Slovak Evangelical settlers, who arrived from Upper Hungary and Pest County with their pastor, András Hrdina in 1722. By 1759 their third church was built but from nondurable material. The recent Old Church, which can accommodate 3000 people was built in 1788 under pastors Sámuel Tessedik and Dániel Boczkó. Major renovations took place in 1888 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the church and later in the 1960s.
The records were arranged for the first time by Pastor István Jancsovics in 1841 and in 1852, according to subject matters. The archives were rearranged and newer catalogues in hand-written and typed format were elaborated by Jenő Sólyom (1962) and Pál Kovács (1980). In 1953 the congregation was divided into Old Church and New Church parts; since then the documents have been preserved separately, according to competence. Meanwhile the records of some extinct church organizations were taken in by archives, e.g. the fragmentary material of the Widows and Orphans Aid Association of Szarvas, the Luther Orphanage of the Evangelical Congregation of Szarvas and the Protestant Women’s Association.
The registration of the records and the preparation of archival aids have been computerized since 1996. The equipment of the institution and the placing of the records improved a lot, the archives are secured by alarm system, smoke detector and grid. From 2002 the computerization of the registers started.
