Grace United Methodist Church is a historic
Methodist Church
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
building at 34 Court Street in
Keene, New Hampshire
Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat and the only city in ...
. Built in 1869, it was designed by architect
Shepard S. Woodcock, and is one of the largest churches in southwestern New Hampshire. It was added to 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 ...
in 1985.
[ Its congregation moved in 2009 and was disbanded in 2016, and the building is (as of 2018) undergoing renovation for use as professional offices.
]
Description and history
The former Grace United Methodist Church is in downtown Keene, a short way north of Central Square on the west side of Court Street. It is a large brick building with 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 ...
styling. It has a gabled roof, with buttressing along the sides and at the corners. A tower with a tall spire rises from the right front corner, with a polychrome slate finish. There are three entrances on the main facade, one in the tower, one at the center below the main gable, and one to the left of a buttressed turret. The interior is two stories, with classrooms, vestry, and office spaces on the ground floor, and the main sanctuary on the second floor.[ and ]
The Grace congregation was founded in 1832, and built its first house of worship in 1852.Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. It was built at the high cost of $40,000, beyond the means of its parishioners to afford; the congregation was in debt until 1896. Originally roofed in polychrome slate (similar to what appears on the spire), the roof was replaced after the 1938 New England Hurricane
The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near th ...
.[
Due to dwindling enrollment, the Methodist congregation moved to rent smaller quarters in the Odd Fellows Hall on Marlboro Street, and was formally disbanded in 2016.][ The historic church's Steer and Turner organ was removed and sold to a German Catholic church. The building was purchased in 2018 by a businessman seeking to place his business there.]
See also
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References
{{NRHP in Cheshire County, New Hampshire
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire
Gothic Revival church buildings in New Hampshire
Churches completed in 1869
19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States
Methodist churches in New Hampshire
Churches in Cheshire County, New Hampshire
Buildings and structures in Keene, New Hampshire
1869 establishments in New Hampshire
National Register of Historic Places in Cheshire County, New Hampshire
Methodist Episcopal churches in the United States