Our Time Line
Serving Christ in the Heart of Germantown for over 170 years.
1840 - The congregation, numbering 45, decided to build. The trustees purchased a lot on the west side of a newly opened street west of Germantown and divided the property for church yard and grave yard. After a small frame building was erected, the street became known as Church Street, now McVay.
1862 - Having faithfully served its members for some twenty years, the Germantown Methodist’s first frame building became a hospital for wounded Federal soldiers during the occupation of Germantown in the Civil War. The structure suffered considerable wartime damage.
About 1870 - A second frame church replaced the original building.
1890 - Church trustees purchased the adjoining lot to the north in order to build a parsonage. There had been no resident minister until then because it was, and still is, common practice for small Methodist congregations to be served by traveling clergy ministering to two or more churches.
1916 - The need for a better church had been recognized. The trustees secured financing by mortgaging the church lot and borrowing $800 from the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The second frame structure was razed and a new one erected.
1921 - Lightning struck the church, which burned to the ground. The trustees decided to move. Retaining the cemetery, they sold the Church Street property and bought a lot on Bridge Street, now Germantown Road. The adjoining lot was purchased to provide space for a new parsonage.
For the next several years Germantown’s Methodists met for worship in the only portion of the new church they could afford to finish: a concrete basement, which had been temporarily roofed.
1929 - The 324 member congregation finally completed its new church plant; a sanctuary, which is now the chapel; a Sunday School room, the present hallway behind the chapel; a pastor’s office; and a parsonage.
1947 - Church members numbered 355. A home to the south of church was purchased for a new parsonage, and the old parsonage to the north was converted into Sunday School Rooms.
1957 - The old parsonage was torn down to make way for a fellowship hall and kitchen, constructed on the site of the present church offices. The congregation had shrunk slightly to just 346.
1960 - Land adjoining the church property was purchased for a parking lot.
1964 - Membership had increased to 432. A two-story building for classrooms was added to the west of the structure housing what is now the chapel.
1970s - The membership of Germantown United Methodist Church increased rapidly, reflecting a dramatic population explosion in the Germantown community. By 1976, 867 members were listed on the church rolls; within two years the figure reached 1300.
November of 1976 - The congregation, choir, and pastors walked in joyous procession from the present chapel to a spacious, newly built sanctuary. Two years later the new Schantz pipe organ was dedicated.
Following the completion of the sanctuary, the fellowship hall, the new kitchen, and the choir room, the church offices were remodeled.
1983 The education building on the south end of the Germantown Road property was completed.
1989 - Germantown United Methodist Church, with a membership of 1958, dedicated the Owings Life Enrichment Center on West Street across from the sanctuary. The OLEC included a gym with stage and walking track, new classrooms and kitchen facilities.
1992 - To further serve its 2461 members, GUMC bought back the old parsonage and church property on McVay along with five acres surrounding the original Methodist cemetery. The old house was remodeled for use by the Boy Scouts and other groups; the land was converted into beautiful McVay Park.
2002 - Just after Christmas we began renovations and additions to the main campus.
