The Primera Iglesia Metodista Unida de Ponce (English: ''First United Methodist Church of Ponce.'' Officially, ''Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church'') was the first structure erected in Puerto Rico by the celebrated architect

Antonin Nechodoma Antonin Nechodoma (1877–1928), was a Czech architect who practiced in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic from 1905 to 1928. He is known for the introduction of the Prairie Style to the Caribbean and the integration of Arts and Crafts elements to ...

.Felix Julian del Campo, State Historian; and Hector F. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) August 1987. In ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form''. United States Department of the Inferior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 87001822. August 1987. Constructed in 1907, the building houses a

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 ...

congregation and is located on Villa street in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

, in the city's historic district. The structure was listed on the U.S.

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 ...

on 29 October 1987.Felix Julian del Campo, State Historian; and Hector F. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) August 1987. In ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form''. United States Department of the Inferior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 2. Listing Reference Number 87001822. August 1987.

Background

Under the Spanish colonial government (1508''Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.''
Accessed 9 July 2019. - 1898) religious worship in Puerto Rico was prohibited in other than Catholic churches. With the 1898 change in sovereignty from the Spaniards to the Americans,

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

churches began to be built. Now (2019) known as Primera Iglesia Metodista La Resurrección, this church was built in 1907 on land that was previously owned by the Vendrell Toro family, a prominent family in Ponce.Secretaría de Arte y Cultura del Gobierno Municipal de Ponce, Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico. ''Ponce Ciudad Museo 2001.'' 2001. p. 57. In 1962 the church served as the first site of the

Interamerican University of Puerto Rico at Ponce The Interamerican University of Puerto Rico at Ponce — or Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ponce (UIPR-P) in Spanish, and often referred as "''La Inter''"— is a Christian co-educational non-sectarian university in Ponce, ...

, until more spacious quarters were established at the intersection of Calle Estrella and Calle Castillo. Today (2019) the church continuous to hold regular worship services. The building is open, free of charge, Tuesday to Friday mornings for the general public; Saturday visits are possible if arrangements are made in advanced.

Physical appearance

The First United Methodist Church of Ponce is a magnificent example of early 20th-century eclecticism, integrating

Neo-Gothic 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 ...

Spanish Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In th ...

Spanish Baroque The arts of the Spanish Baroque include: *Spanish Baroque painting *Spanish Baroque architecture ** Spanish Baroque ephemeral architecture *Spanish Baroque literature **''Culteranismo'' **''Conceptismo'' * Spanish Baroque art ** Bodegón **Tenebri ...

, and

byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

elements. It is constructed entirely of rusticated, reinforced-concrete with gabled wood and corrugated sheet metal roofs. In volume, the church consists of a gabled single-nave, parallel to the street and subdivided into three sections. A large, central cross-gable creates the main facade at Calle Villa, facing north. On Calle Villa, the cross-gable is articulated by a Spanish-baroque style rope pediment. Flanking this gabled, central transept are two square-plan towers, a shorter

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

on the west and a taller bell-tower on the east, both resting upon the intersections of the main nave and cross-gable. The main

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 aesth ...

is divided into three bays: a wide, central bay with a large, wide, four-centered gothic arch stained-glass window and two flanking bays with similar but smaller and narrower stained-glass windows. Above the central bay, a stained glass Spanish-renaissance

oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

(consisting of a square with semicircular projections at each of its four sides) occupies the area within the pediment. The east bell-tower consists of a two-story rusticated base and step-backs to an onion-shaped

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

above the belfry. At the ground level, an entry vestibule is created by an open, four-centered archway. At the second story, still within the tower's rusticated base-section, a series of four narrow, stained-glass strip windows provide a distinct, modernist, element. The first segment of the step-backs of the tower contains two smaller strip windows, and the following, taller set-back houses the church-bell behind narrow arches, one on each of the four sides, supported by

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns. The onion-cupola caps the composition. The smaller, west

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is completely rusticated and terminates in a rope pediment, at a level slightly lower than the base of the opposite tower. At the ground level there is a vestibule similar to that of the other tower and above, a circular opening with an oculus within. The main

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

extends only one bay beyond the towers. These bays are identical to the smaller

stained-glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

bays of the main gable. A series of low buttresses supports all major walls, one at each extreme of. each wall. The side gables of the main nave repeat, exactly, the articulation of the facade of the main cross-gable. A rusticated concrete and

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

surrounds the property, articulated by square

pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s at approximately 20 foot intervals, and spanned by an approximately 2 foot high rusticated

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

base and bar-like wrought-iron railings above.

Significance

The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Ponce is a very good example of

religious architecture Sacral architecture (also known as sacred architecture or religious architecture) is a religious architectural practice concerned with the design and construction of places of worship or sacred or intentional space, such as churches, mosques, ...

. This

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

architect was one of the first non-Hispanic designers to work in Puerto Rico. A colleague of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

under

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

in Chicago, Nechodoma developed the Puerto Rican Bungalow style for residential housing, which spread rapidly throughout the Island during the 1920s and 1930s. Nechodoma was the architect of at least three

churches and many magnificent

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

-style

upper-class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...

residences. Most of Nechodoma's buildings have been demolished because of later developments. Most of his surviving structures are now considered

landmarks A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

. Nechodoma designed his projects between 1907 and 1928. As the original plans of the church are dated 1907, historians believe that the Methodist Episcopal Church of Ponce was the first structure erected in Puerto Rico by the celebrated

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. The materials used to construct the church are of importance in the history of construction in Puerto Rico.

Reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

, the principal material, was seldom, if at all, used at this early date in Puerto Rico. Contemporary concrete buildings exhibited a lack of understanding of the then-new material, evidenced by extremely thick

wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...

s and excessive use of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

s (traditional means of construction were applied to modern materials). These characteristics are not found in the construction of this building. Nechodoma used the concrete in an elegant and even decorative fashion, demonstrating his knowledge of

North-American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

construction techniques and his distance from the local building customs. The building looks as if it is made of

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

and not concrete. This church is also important in Puerto Rico's religious history, as it was one of the first non-Roman Catholic churches built after the change of sovereignty in 1898, when the United States established rule. Until then, the only non-Catholic church allowed by Spanish colonial authorities to practice in Puerto Rico had been the

Anglican church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

, organized by British residents. The Methodist Church is an example of the

freedom of worship Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...

instated after the United States occupation of the island. State Historian Felix Julian del Campo and State Architectural Historian Hector F. Santiago consider it the most prominent non-Catholic structure in the city of Ponce.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Primera Iglesia Metodista Unida de Ponce Churches completed in 1907 20th-century Methodist church buildings Methodist churches in Puerto Rico Churches in Ponce, Puerto Rico National Register of Historic Places in Ponce, Puerto Rico Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico 1907 establishments in Puerto Rico United Methodist Church

Background

Physical appearance

Significance

See also

References

Further reading

External links