John Wesley Methodist Church, also known as First Methodist Church, is a historic

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

on E. Foster Street in Lewisburg,

Greenbrier County, West Virginia Greenbrier County () is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,977. Its county seat is Lewisburg. The county was formed in 1778 from Botetourt and Montgomery counties in Virginia. History P ...

. It was built in 1820, and is a two-story, brick

meeting house A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

building with

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style design elements. It originally measures 58 feet long by 47 feet wide. In 1835, a vestibule addition added 10 feet to the length. The interior features a "slave gallery." During the Battle of Lewisburg, a cannonball struck the southwest corner and the repairs remain visible. John Weir, a brickmason and architect, is traditionally accepted to have been the architect for the 1820 building. An 1835 addition was by John W. Dunn, also a brickmason and architect. Dunn is credited with bringing

architecture to the area by this work. According to the 1974 NRHP nomination, the building "remains one of the county's most stately structures". It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1974.

References

American Civil War sites in West Virginia Buildings and structures in Greenbrier County, West Virginia Greek Revival church buildings in West Virginia Greenbrier County, West Virginia in the American Civil War Methodist churches in West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Greenbrier County, West Virginia Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Churches completed in 1820 John W. Dunn buildings Methodist Episcopal churches in the United States {{WestVirginia-church-stub