The German Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as St. Paul's German Methodist Episcopal Church, is a historic church building in

Burlington, Iowa Burlington is a city in, and the county seat of, Des Moines County, Iowa, United States. The population was 23,982 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 26,839 population in 2000. Burlington is the center of a micropolitan area, which includes ...

, United States. The German Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in Burlington in 1845. It was the second of eight German congregations established in the city of various denominations. with The Reverend Sebastian Barth, the first pastor, initially held services in a small frame house, and then in the basement of another church. The first permanent home for the congregation was a small brick church that was built in 1848. This structure was built from 1868 to 1869. It is a Victorian Gothic structure with Romanesque elements. The stone for the exterior was quarried from the site where the church was built. Services in English were added in 1905 and all the services were in English by 1916. When the German and American branches of the Methodist church were merged in 1925, St. Paul's congregation was disbanded, and its members were absorbed by other congregations in Burlington. There was a small group that reorganized the German Methodist Episcopal Church at St. Paul's in 1930, but by 1938 the building was sold to the Church of the Nazarene. They occupied it until 1968. The Art Guild of Burlington bought the building in 1973. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the Heritage Hill Historic District in 1982.

References

Religious organizations established in 1845 Churches completed in 1869 Former Methodist church buildings in Iowa Churches in Burlington, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines County, Iowa German-American culture in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{Iowa-church-stub