Saint John's Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church building in

Kingman, Arizona Kingman is a city in and the county seat of Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It is named after Lewis Kingman, an engineer for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The population was 32,693 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Hi ...

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 ...

. It is significant for its unique architecture. It is no longer used as a church. It is also notable as the location of the 1939 marriage of film actors

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

and

Carole Lombard Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard ...

History

The church was built at the corner of Spring and Fifth streets in

. It is one block away from

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

. St. John's is the oldest organized religious group in Kingman and this is its second building. The church was built in 1917, in the

Greek Revival style Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

. Construction started on February 28, 1917. The first church service was on May 8, 1889. The church was added to the

in 1986.

Architecture

The one story building measures and is constructed of local tufa limestone on a stone foundation with a gable roof. The basement is partially above ground; a wide imposing tone staircase rises from ground level to the first floor. The main entry is recessed behind a front porch supported by six Tuscan columns. The entry has sidelights on both sides and a transom above topped with a

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 an ...

. The north side has four sets of three light double-hung windows with transoms, while the south side has individual one-over-one double-hung windows. The building is significant for its architecture which complements the nearby Mohave County Courthouse, which was built two years earlier and of the same material. While built during the Neo-Classical Revival period, it is of the Classic

Roman Temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in culture of ancient Rome, Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Architecture of ancient Rome, Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete ...

form. It is the best example of such a building in Arizona, which were not common in the timeframe in which it was constructed. The construction date of 1917 is known from the building's cornerstone.

Gable-Lombard marriage

On March 29, 1939,

and

eloped Elopement is a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, sometimes involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married without parental approval. A ...

to Kingman and were married in the church while on a break from the filming of

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

. The service was conducted by the minister of the church, two strangers were the witnesses, and Gable's close friend Otto Winkler, an

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

press agent, was the best man.

Present

On a 1984 survey for the Arizona State Historic Property Inventory, the building was listed as original/unaltered and in good/well-maintained condition. At that time, it was still in use as a church. As of 2020, it was being used for a

Mohave County Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 counties in the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is th ...

Office of the

Public Defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Si ...

. File:Kingman-Church-Saint John's Methodist Episcopal Church-1917.jpg, The building in 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Methodist Episcopal Church, Kingman, Arizona Methodist churches in Arizona Churches in Mohave County, Arizona Buildings and structures in Kingman, Arizona Churches completed in 1917 20th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Greek Revival church buildings in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Kingman, Arizona Methodist Episcopal churches in the United States