McColley's Chapel is a

Methodist 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 ...

chapel located between Ellendale and

Georgetown, Delaware Georgetown is a town in and the county seat of Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population of the town is 6,422, an increase of 38.3% over the previous decade. Georgetown is pa ...

. It 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 ...

on November 30, 2011.

Description

The property consists of a single-story church facing east-northeast, surrounded by a cemetery. The church proper is a simple wood-framed gabled structure covered in asphalt shingles, with a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

projecting from the back and a brick chimney applied to the south side. The facade features an

open pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In ancient ...

in the gable and a pair of windows flanking the central entrance, with a wooden sign over the door; each side also has three tall, narrow double-hung windows, with a smaller window on either side of the chancel. The interior is fitted with box pews flanking a center aisle, and a pulpit and altar, also aligned with the center line of the building. The chancel opening has plain casing surmounted by a pediment; the back wall of the altar area is ornamented by column casing supporting a

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

. The cemetery contains burials from 1860 up to 2007. Some plots are surrounded by iron railings; older tombstones are generally of marble and are hard to read. Many of the stones have elaborate low relief, but some stone are simple obelisks.

History

It is the second church building on land donated by James Rudden in 1857. The first church was built by Trustan P. McColley and was named after him; it was the oldest Methodist church in

Georgetown Hundred Georgetown Hundred is a hundred in Sussex County, Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland ...

. This building fell into disrepair and was destroyed in a fire sometime in the late 1890s. The second building was built in 1898. the church was used for services and was under the Peninsula-Delaware Conference 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 ...

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Delaware Religious buildings and structures completed in 1898 Methodist churches in Delaware Churches in Sussex County, Delaware 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Buildings and structures in Georgetown, Delaware 1898 establishments in Delaware National Register of Historic Places in Sussex County, Delaware