Status: Destroyed by fire; delisted Nov. 9, 2007

Address: 204 North Second Street, Memphis

Built: 1893, 1924, 1955

Architectural Style: High Victorian Gothic Revival

The First Methodist Church was placed on the National Register on Mar. 19, 1976.

History: The church was organized in 1826. Beginning in 1832, over a period of sixty years a succession of buildings in the same location housed its congregation until the completion in 1893 of a large granite and limestone church that took five years to build. “It was built on the Akron plan with Sunday School rooms to the rear of the church. Big sliding doors separated the classrooms from the main sanctuary.” The church’s interior was modernized in 1955 and the Sunday School Building (built 1924) in 1968. One of the highlights of the church’s sesquicentennial celebration in 1976 was the announcement that it had been listed on the National Register. On October 6, 2006 the church was gutted by fire, and wind-borne embers lit fires in other buildings three blocks away; remains of the building were later dismantled. A steel-beam outline of the former church was soon erected, and in April 2017 construction began to replace the sanctuary.

 

City Council District: 6

Super District: 8

County Commission District: 8