The former Nast Trinity United Methodist Church, now known as The Warehouse Church, is a historic congregation of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

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. Designed by leading Cincinnati architect

Samuel Hannaford Samuel Hannaford (10 April 1835 – 7 January 1911) was an American architect based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Some of the best known landmarks in the city, such as Music Hall and City Hall, were of his design. The bulk of Hannaford's work was do ...

and completed in 1880, it was the home of the first German Methodist church to be established anywhere in the world,Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 600-601. and it was declared a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

in the late twentieth century.

Organic history

Born in 1807 in the city of

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

in Germany, William Nast immigrated to the United States at the age of . After teaching at the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

and at

Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is s ...

, he joined the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. ...

at the age of and was soon

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

to the Methodist ministry. Starting in Cincinnati in 1837, he began a process of organizing Methodist churches among German immigrants throughout the United States. Although the members of the new First German Methodist Episcopal Church originally worshipped in the nearby Wesley Chapel, they soon acquired the Race Street property on which the present church building is located. Eventually named Nast Methodist Church for its founder, the congregation merged with Trinity Methodist Church in 1958, and the two churches' names were mingled. Trinity Methodist was older than Nast Methodist, having been established in 1835.OTR church celebrates 175 years in the community

WCPO WCPO-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based E. W. Scripps Company, which has owned the station since its inception. WCPO-TV's ...

, 2010-08-29. Accessed 2010-11-17. Its founding members had come together from several older Methodist Episcopal churches in various parts of the city, including Wesley Chapel; because the denomination lacked churches in the city's downtown, a lot was purchased on Ninth Street and the Trinity congregation's building erected there. Over the years, Trinity was weakened multiple times by the establishment of several other congregations by some of its former members; more than half of its members left to found Walnut Hills Methodist Church in 1870, and the 1892 creation of Clifton Methodist Episcopal Church resulted in the departure of three-fourths of Trinity's leading members. By the middle of the twentieth century, the neighborhood surrounding Trinity's church building had become part of Cincinnati's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

, and the congregation was continuing to shrink in both membership and money; as a result, it merged with Nast Methodist Church.Church History
Nast Trinity United Methodist Church, 2009. Accessed 2010-11-17. Located on Ninth Street west of Race Street, the former Trinity Methodist Church building continues in existence to the present day.

Architecture

Nast Trinity Methodist southern minor entrance

Located in Cincinnati's

Over-the-Rhine Over-the-Rhine (often abbreviated as OTR) is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Historically, Over-the-Rhine has been a working-class neighborhood. It is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United State ...

neighborhood, the church building is a stone structure with brick elements, built on a stone

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

and covered with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. Two-and-a-half

stories Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (Briti ...

tall, the church features a prominent front

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

with a grand tympanum created in the Norman style. Numerous

courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

of undressed stone appear on the exterior, which is furthermore distinguished by a semi-

Palladian window Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

, an elaborate

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

arch, multiple small circular windows, and small porches on both sides of the facade. By choosing Samuel Hannaford (who was a member of the Winton Place Methodist Episcopal Church in the village of Winton Place) to design their new structure in 1881, Nast Methodist Episcopal Church selected one of Cincinnati's most prominent architects. Having completed the grand

Cincinnati Music Hall Music Hall, commonly known as Cincinnati Music Hall, is a classical music performance hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, completed in 1878. It serves as the home for the Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival Ch ...

in the 1870s, Hannaford was at the pinnacle of his career in the early 1880s. At this time, Cincinnati was experiencing significant growth, and Hannaford's services were in demand throughout the city and its suburbs.Gordon, Stephen C., and Elisabeth H. Tuttle. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

, 1978-12-11. Accessed 2010-11-17. Many other churches in the region commissioned buildings from Hannaford during this period of his life; more than a dozen survive today, and nearly all of these structures feature walls of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

with undressed exteriors, like that of Nast Trinity. Conversely, few of these church buildings are designed in the conventional Romanesque Revival style of Nast Trinity; the majority are

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

buildings, and several others are examples of the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanes ...

style. Such a variation in styles was not restricted to religious buildings; as popular tastes changed, Hannaford willingly employed a wide range of architectural styles in all types of buildings.

Historic site

In recognition of its historically significant architecture, the

listed the former First German Methodist Episcopal Church 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 ...

in 1980. It was part of a

multiple property submission 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 ...

of structures designed by Samuel Hannaford in Cincinnati and the surrounding metropolitan area, which included thirteen different religious buildings and more than fifty buildings overall. Its designation as a historic site is particularly significant because of its religious nature, for churches and other religious properties are not typically considered eligible for inclusion on the Register.National Register Criteria for Evaluation

. Accessed 2010-11-17.

References

{{Samuel Hannaford and Sons TR 1880s architecture in the United States Churches completed in 1881 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Churches in Cincinnati German-American history German-American culture in Cincinnati History of Methodism in the United States United Methodist churches in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati 1881 establishments in Ohio Over-the-Rhine Samuel Hannaford church buildings Methodist Episcopal churches in the United States