Church Street's Heritage & History
The
following is a brief chronological history of Church Street United Methodist
Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. This history was compiled by the History
Committee of the church.
Read more about
Church Street UMC with excerpts from "Our Heritage And Our Hope"
- a book written by a group of church members in 1966.
Highlights
On November 2, Bishop
Francis Asbury preached first Methodist sermon in Knoxville, to 700
people at the State House (Knoxville was the capital of the four-year-old
state of Tennessee). He had ridden 150 miles on horseback that week.
1816
Methodist church
built on Hill Avenue, east of present viaduct over James White Parkway,
near the Hyatt Regency hotel. Named White's Chapel for the donor of
the land, Hugh Lawson White, the son of Knoxville's founder, James White.
Property deed dated May 13, 1816.
1824
Holston Conference
of Methodist Episcopal Church established. Knoxville was previously
part of the Tennessee Conference, established in 1812. The new conference
included East Tennessee as well as parts of Virginia and North Carolina.
1827
Knoxville church
became a "station" (rather than one of several churches on
a "circuit") for first time, with Isaac Lewis assigned as
pastor. Became a permanent station in 1832.
1836
Congregation left
Hill Avenue for a new church on Church Street (north side, between Walnut
and Market) on land donated by James A. King, a physician and businessman.
Deed to property was executed May 8, 1834. Church at old location continued;
later known as Methodist Hill and still later as East Hill Avenue Methodist
Church, it survived until the urban renewal of 1963.
1844
American Methodism
split over slavery issue. Knoxville church was part of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. There was no Northern Methodist (M.E.) church
in Knoxville until after the Civil War.
1863
David Sullins, appointed
pastor of the church after having served as quartermaster with the rank
of major in a Confederate regiment, fled Knoxville on the last train
before Federal troops entered the city. He and another Methodist minister,
W.E. Munsey, hid out in Grayson County, Virginia, until 1865, after
the war ended. The church was closed and not used again by the Southern
congregation for about ten years. It is said to have been used to stable
horses belonging to Union army. No further pastors were appointed until
after the war, when Charles T. Carroll was assigned.
1866
Northern Methodists
established First ME Church and began using the building which formerly
housed the Southern congregation, meeting there until 1869. (From this
point until 1939, there were two Holston Conferences, one Northern and
one Southern.) In a few years Southern Methodists built a plain brick
church one block further east on Church Street. The church roll was
reconstructed from memory by Mrs. Elizabeth Truslow, age 79.
1871
The name "Church
Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South" first used by action
of the quarterly conference. As other Methodist churches were formed,
more specific names were necessary; for example, the Broad Street ME
Church, South, had been organized in 1870. (It later merged with Centenary
Church to form the Central ME Church, South.)
1874
Property formerly
held by Southern church was returned by court action. The Northern church
(First ME) had now moved to a new building on Clinch Avenue, but still
retained the property.
1875
Work began on new
Southern Methodist church on Church Street, which was erected at a cost
of under $20,000. First occupied in 1878, the building lasted fifty
years. The debt was paid off by 1881. A Sunday school chapel was built
and also a parsonage in 1891-92. Membership was now more than 500.
1878
Church Street's
first Woman's Missionary Society organized. Later known as Woman's Society
of Christian Service and eventually as United Methodist Women.
1914
Church Street membership
reached 1,000.
1922
University of Tennessee
Wesley Foundation began as campus fellowship within Church Street Church.
It did not move onto the campus until 1941. Over the years there has
been a close relationship between Church Street and the University.
Two UT presidents, Harcourt Morgan (1919-1934) and Andy Holt (1959-1970),
were active church members.
1924
Percy Knickerbocker
brought to Church Street Church from Texas as pastor, with intention
that he lead in the building of a new church. Controversy arose: should
a new church be built? If it were built, should it be on the old site
or on a different one? If it were to be a different site, then where?
1925
Church Street membership
reached 1,500.
1928
On Sunday, February
19, fire broke out at the close of the evening service, about 8:30 p.m.
Knoxville firemen were already responding to two alarms received since
8:15 a.m. The church and the Sunday school building were destroyed,
though the former parsonage, serving as an office building, was saved.
Loss was estimated at between $250,000 and $300,000. Church Streeters
relished for years the story that the organist, Miss Bess Platt, looked
at the church as it was going up in flames and exclaimed with concern
that she had forgotten to lock the organ!
During the next
three years services were held in the Lyric and Riviera theaters, both
on Gay Street, while Sunday school classes were held in various places:
the Lyceum Building, the Masonic Temple, the YWCA, the Riviera, and
the church office building.
Although many members
preferred rebuilding on the old site, the Building Committee, chaired
by H.L. Dulin, recommended constructing a church in Gothic style at
the southwest corner of Henley and Main, where the City of Knoxville
was in the process of widening Henley Street to connect with the new
bridge over the Tennessee River. The church unanimously adopted the
committee's recommendation. Although some wanted the church to face
Main, it was later agreed that it would face Henley Street.
1929
On September 4,
plans were completed and contracts signed for building the new church.
Barber & McMurry were to be the architects, with John Russell Pope
of New York a consultant. (Charles Barber was a native Knoxvillian and
a member of Church Street Church; Pope was later to design the Jefferson
Memorial and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, both
in Washington.) The new church was expected to cost $525,000. Stock
market crash came the following month, on October 29, signaling the
beginning of the Depression. Financing the construction became very
difficult; there seemed a real chance that the building might be lost
and several prominent members plunged into debt. At one point the pastor,
W.R. Hendrix, went to Washington to persuade the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation to give the church more time.
1930
Ground broken for
the new church, March 12, by H. L. Dulin, chairman of the Building Committee.
The cornerstone was laid August 3 by Bishop Horace M. DuBose, who predicted
that the church's walls would stand for 2,000 years.
1931
First service held
in the new church Sunday, January 25, without pulpit, pews, stained
glass, or pipe organ. About 1,000 people attended. C.C. Grimes was now
the pastor, Dr. Knickerbocker having left several years earlier. Despite
the new location, the church continued to use the name Church Street
ME Church, South.
As time went on,
various features of the sanctuary were added. The pulpit was dedicated
in 1938; the stained-glass windows were designed by the Charles J. Connick
Studios of Boston and installed in the 1940s and 1950s, beginning with
the "Beauty of Holiness" window above the altar in 1941 and
ending with the last chapel windows in 1956. A four-manual Pilcher organ
originally intended for a Methodist church in Palm Beach, Florida, was
obtained and installed in March 1931, replacing the Moller which had
been destroyed in the fire. (Miss Bess Platt continued as the organist,
finally serving 41 years and retiring in 1963.) The reredos above the
altar was installed in 1947. The rear wall above the reredos and altar
was painted in 1955 by Hugh Tyler (uncle of novelist James Agee), who
later painted the wall above the altar in the chapel. Perhaps the last
notable change made in the chancel was the 1974 addition of the figure
of Christ in the reredos, replacing the angel Gabriel.
1939
The Northern and
Southern Methodist churches in America united, becoming The Methodist
Church. The church name thus became Church Street Methodist Church.
1940
On Labor Day, with
his campaign for a third term beginning, President Franklin Roosevelt
was driven past the church en route to Newfound Gap to dedicate the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He reportedly inquired about the
church and remarked, "That is the most beautiful church I have
ever seen."
1943
Church Street membership
reached 2,000.
1947
Isaac P. Martin,
former pastor and presiding elder (district superintendent), published
first book-length history of church, Church Street Methodists, Children
of Francis Asbury: A History of Church Street Methodist Church, Knoxville,
Tennessee, 18161947.
1951
In an attempt to
obtain more space for Sunday school classes, the church purchased the
old University of Tennessee Law School building at the southeast corner
of Main and Broadway, which had been vacated the previous year. It was
used until the construction of the education building in the following
decade and then demolished.
1953
The
church's long indebtedness was finally paid off during the pastorate
of Cecil P. Hardin, 22 years after the first service had been held.
The dedication service (Methodist churches are not dedicated until paid
for) was held Thanksgiving Sunday, November 22, with Bishop Roy Short
and Dr. Bays, the pastor who preceded Dr. Hardin, in charge. A narrative
pageant, "The Church Street Story," by Maude M. Turpin, was
given that evening.
1958
Church's services
televised live (black and white only) for first time by WATE-TV, channel
6. Sharing with other downtown churches, Church Street's services were
telecast every fourth Sunday of the month for a number of years. Services
had been carried on radio as early as 1931, on WNOX (990 AM).
1964
The church's education
building, begun the previous year on Hill Avenue on property formerly
belonging to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was completed
at a cost of $350,000 and the cornerstone set in place at 9:30 a.m.
on Easter Sunday morning, March 29, during the pastorate of Paul Worley.
The laying of the stone was done by T.L. Yon, an Italian stone mason,
and Sara Lewis, a member of Church Street for 76 years. (Her grandfather,
Isaac Lewis, had been appointed pastor in 1827, the first after Knoxville
became a station church rather than part of a circuit.) Bishop Roy Short
also participated and delivered the sermon at the main service.
1966
Church Street celebrated
the 150th anniversary of Methodism in Knoxville (counting from 1816,
the erection of the first church) with a special service on May 15 and
a historical pageant, "Our Heritage and Our Hope" by Laura
Bagwell, with a final scene by Robert Parrott, who also served as narrator.
Parrott also wrote a sesquicentennial hymn, Let This Our Church's Living
Witness Be. "Our Heritage and Our Hope" was also the title
of a book of church history which was produced in connection with the
150th anniversary.
May 15 was also
the day of the first service at the church's lodge in the mountains
on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the John W. Sterchi Lodge (formerly
known as Asbury Ski-Hi). The building itself was not completed until
1969. Land had been given to the church by Nathan and Allene Jones.
A three-manual,
46 rank Aeolian-Skinner organ was used for the first time on May 22,
replacing the old Pilcher (though a few of its ranks were used in the
new instrument). On the following evening a dedicatory recital was given
by Alec Wyton, national president of the American Guild of Organists
and organist and master of choristers at the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York City. In 1984 the organ was expanded to 60 ranks
by Randall Dyer & Associates.
Choir scholarship
program for university students established in fall under leadership
of Calvin Bower, new organist-choirmaster.
1968
On the national
level, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren
Church, itself a product of the 1946 union between the United Brethren
and the Evangelical Church. After some discussion, the present name
was adopted: Church Street United Methodist Church.
The denomination's
African American, non-geographical "Central" Jurisdiction
was dissolved, ending a long era of segregation. Black and white ministers
were now attending the same annual conferences and could be assigned
to the same churches.
Holston Conference
(i.e., East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia) was made an Episcopal
area, with its bishop located in Knoxville; previously it had been part
of the Nashville area, which was composed of three conferences: Memphis,
Tennessee, and Holston. L. Scott Allen, formerly a bishop in the Central
Jurisdiction, was appointed as the first bishop of the Holston area.
1969
Day care center
for children established in the church's education building.
1970
Master Arts Series
of concerts begun by organist-choirmaster William E. "Bill"
Gray. First in the series was an organ recital April 10 by Richard Bouchett
of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in New York City.
1971
Library refurbished
and dedicated October 3, as memorial to J.P. McCluskey, Jr., a former
associate pastor who had died the previous year. First Madrigal Dinners
held in church's Parish Hall, in December.
1973
John W. Sterchi
Memorial Lodge dedicated on Jones' Mountain on Tennessee-North Carolina
border, August 19.
1974
Figure of "The
Welcoming Christ" by Arcangelo Cascieri, dean of the Boston Architectural
Center, added to the reredos in September, replacing the angel Gabriel.
1981
On January 25, Bishop
H. Ellis Finger presided at a service of rededication celebrating the
50th anniversary of the opening for worship of Church Street Church.
Some of the hymns and anthems were those of the 1953 dedication service.
1982
On February 7 church
launched television ministry with thirty-minute Sunday morning program
"Rejoice!" The program usually featured a sermon by one of
the ministers, an anthem, and a solo. At first shown on WTVK, channel
26; later on WKXT, channel 8, the program was repeated later in the
week on community television cable channel.
New chapel altar
was dedicated during Palm Sunday service, April 4.
Knoxville World's
Fair opened May 1, directly across from Church Street Church. For a
time three worship services were held each Sunday morning. Special tours
and concerts were planned, and many of the church's parking spaces were
rented to fair-goers.
Needlepoint cushions
in chancel first used for communion, July 4, and dedicated on World
Communion Sunday, October 3. Stitching had begun two years earlier and
involved more than seventy church members. Publication of A Book of
Remembrance: Church Street United Methodist Church written by S. Joseph
Platt, with the assistance of Lionel Edney, Kathryn Everett, and Neil
Jourolmon.
1986
Ground was broken
for the Church Life Center, Sunday, Sept. 7, during pastorate of Toombs
H. Kay. Charles Sample was the chairperson for the Building Committee;
Herb Moncier was the chairperson for the steering committee for the
Capital Stewardship Campaign.
1987
Toombs Kay left
Church Street in June after serving longer as pastor than anyone else
in the church's history (1974-1987). At the same time, Patricia DeVoe
was appointed to the church's ministerial staff, the first woman to
hold such a position.
1988
Richard C. Looney,
who had followed Toombs Kay as pastor, was elected bishop at the July
meeting of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to
the South Georgia area. Two previous Church Street pastors had later
been elected bishop: E.E. Hoss (pastor, 1870-72; elected bishop, 1902)
and R. G. Waterhouse (pastor, 1886-90; elected bishop, 1910). No previous
minister had been elected bishop while serving at Church Street.
1989
The Church Life
Center consecrated January 8, at a 5 p.m. service, during the pastorate
of Kenneth L. Carder, who had replaced Bishop Looney. At its entrance
stands a bronze statue by Jim Gray, "The Teaching Christ."
The Kay Adult Care Center was later established in the center.
1990
A. Orin Bishop Lecture
Series began, with Denise Hopkins, Professor of Old Testament at Wesley
Theological Seminary, as first lecturer. In the following years professors
from Duke Divinity School, Vanderbilt Divinity School, and Candler School
of Theology (Emory) have lectured.
The church's newsletter,
The Church Street Messenger, published its first issue January 8. Previously
copies of the bulletin for the coming Sunday had been mailed.
A 60th anniversary
service on Sunday, January 27, commemorated the opening of the church
for worship in 1931. Some of the prayers and music of the 1953 dedication
were repeated.
April 9 fire began
near the Parish Hall, resulting in extensive smoke and water damage
to it, the bookstore, and to the nave. The nave was closed for several
weeks while restoration work was going on, and worship services were
held in the gymnasium of the Church Life Center.
1992
In July Kenneth
L. Carder, senior minister, was elected bishop at the jurisdictional
conference and assigned to the Nashville area, thus becoming the second
pastor to be chosen as bishop while serving at Church Street.
1993
Church Street membership
reached 2,500.
1996
Church Street launches
web site: "www.churchstreetumc.org."
Selected Bibliography
- Martin, Isaac
Patton. Church Street Methodists, Children of Francis Asbury: A
History of Church Street Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1816-1947.
Knoxville: Methodist Historical Society of Holston Conference, 1947.
- ---. Methodism
in Holston. Knoxville: Methodist Historical Society of Holston
Conference, 1945. "Our Heritage and Our Hope." [Knoxville,
1966].
- Platt, S. Joseph.
A Book of Remembrance: Church Street United Methodist Church (1793-1816?)-1975.
Knoxville, 1982.
- Rothrock, Mary
U., ed. The French-Broad Holston Country: A History of Knox County,
Tennessee. Knoxville: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1946.
[See especially "Methodists" pp. 288-293.]
Chronology and bibliography
prepared by Allison R. Ensor (April 1997), in consultation with the
History and Records Committee of CSUMC.
