First United Methodist Church is a historic congregation of the

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

in downtown

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Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Founded in London's earliest years, the congregation worships in a historic

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

that was built in the 1890s.

Congregational history

A small group of individuals formed a congregation of 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 nationally. In 1939, th ...

in 1813 or 1814, very soon after London was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted. In its earliest years, the society's members worshipped in each other's homes, and preaching was rare; London's church was part of a circuit of twenty-four Methodist preaching stations. In 1820, the congregation built a log church building on a downtown corner lot; it was the first church building in London. After twenty years, the congregation decided to move. Obtaining property a few blocks away, they built a larger

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

church, on each side, and a brick

parsonage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, pa ...

.''History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions''. Chester E. Bryan, gen. ed.

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

: B.F. Bowen, 1915. During the 1860s, the congregation saw many changes. In 1860, the pastor's responsibilities were reduced; except for Kingsley Chapel, a small church near London, he was no longer assigned to serve any churches other than London, and Kingsley later closed. The same year saw the completion of a new brick church building, which was placed on the site of the frame church building; measuring by , it cost $7,500 to build. Other buildings were erected in the following few years: a new parsonage was completed in 1863, and a small chapel was added to the church's rear in 1866 by the gift of a member. Among the congregation's leading past members was

Jeriah Swetland Jeriah Swetland (April 1817–November 24, 1906) was an American businessman and local politician in nineteenth-century central Ohio.Brown, Robert C. History of Madison County, Ohio'. Chicago: Beers, 1883, 943-944. A native of Springfield ...

, prominent local businessman and

state representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

Church building

Continued growth produced a need for a fourth church building, and the third building was sold in the early 1890s. Buying a house at 52 N. Main Street, the congregation moved it to a nearby empty lot and renovated it for use as a parsonage. With the house's original location now empty, a larger church was erected on the site. At the time of its dedication on November 18, 1894, it had cost $45,000 to build. This church remains in use to the present day. Designed by the architectural firm of Crapsey and Brown, it was built in a combination of the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

and Jacobean Revival architectural styles. The church's brick and sandstone walls rests on a foundation of sandstone; they are topped with an asphalt roof, and the building is decorated with wooden and glass elements.

Recognition

In 1996, First United Methodist was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

because of its well-preserved historic architecture. Today, First United Methodist is a part of the Capitol Area South District of the West Ohio

Conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

of the

. As of 2019, it is served by Pastor David Leckrone and Associate Pastor Seth Evans.London First UMC, London, OH
, West Ohio Conference, 2010. Accessed 2010-07-14.

References

External links

National Register nomination form
{{NRHP in Madison County, Ohio Churches completed in 1894 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in Ohio Jacobean architecture in the United States Buildings and structures in Madison County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Ohio 19th-century Methodist church buildings Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Religious organizations established in 1814 United Methodist churches in Ohio London, Ohio 1814 establishments in Ohio