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Description: Methodist Church Section2 Page 7
Newspaper published in: Washington, D. C., USA
Washington Times June 23, 1907 Methodist Church Section2 Page 7
PRICE OF $61,000 PAID FOR SITE
Entrance on K Street to Be Provided For.
The general conference of the Methodist Church, South, in session at Birmingham, Ala., in May, 1906, acting upon a memorial from the Baltimore conference in that behalf, gave its hearty indorsement and approval to the movement to erect in this city a church building that will be truly representative of the denomination at the National Capital, and proposed that if the congregation of Mt. Vernon Place M. E. Church, South, would raise the sum of $75,000, the church at large would raise $200,000 for that purpose; and a committee was appointed to represent and act for the church at large in carrying the enterprise into execution.
Shortly thereafter the quarterly conference of Mt. Vernon Place Church, by formal resolution, accepted the proposal made by the general conference, and appointed a committee to represent the church locally in all matters connected with the enterprise. Since that time a great deal of quiet work has been done looking to the securing of a suitable site for the new church.
Deal Completed on Wednesday.
A joint meeting of the two committees was held in this city last March, and a site was then decided upon and options taken on the property, but the deal was not closed and the purchase completed until Wednesday last.
The selected site lies in the triangle between Massachusetts avenue and K and Ninth streets, just west of the square occupied by the Carnegie Library. The committee has purchased about 13,00 [sp.] square feet of ground in this triangle, the lot having a frontage of 150 feet on Massachusetts avenue and 157 on K street. The site is generally regarded as an ideal one for a large and commodious church building, such as is proposed to be erected on it. It is centrally located and of easy access from all parts of the city. The wide parking on all sides will add greatly to the beauty and attractiveness of the location.
The new church will be of imposing architectural design and will be equipped with all modern appliances and facilities for church and Sunday school work. Both the main auditorium and the Sunday school room will be under the same roof, but entirely separate and distinct from each other. There will be class rooms, reading rooms, library, parlors, offices, and other conveniences such as belong to a large and strictly modern city church.
Handsome and Attractive Church.
It is proposed that the new building shall be one of the handsomest and most attractive church edifices in the city, and that it shall be up-to-date, both in architectural design and in equipment.
While the plans have not as yet been finally decided upon, it is said that the main front of the church will be on Massachusetts avenue and that there will be an entrance in the nature of a front entrance, on K street as well. The east line of the church building will be about sixty feet west of the west line of the Government reservation abutting on Ninth street. Complete relief from the noise of the street cars, which has been the chief objection to the present or old site, will be thus afforded.
The price paid for the site was $61,000. The deal was negotiated through the real estate firm of Westcott & Wilcox.
The local committee is composed of the Rev. E. V. REGESTER, presiding elder of the Washington district; the Rev. W. F. LOCKE, pastor of Mt. Vernon Place Church; A. B. PUGH, W. W. MILLAN, W. L. CHAMBERS, D. L. COON, Lovick PIERCE, J. Everett BAIRD, John M. FOLLIN, and Clarendon SMITH.
The expenditure of this amount will give to the National Capital one of the largest and most costly church buildings in this section of the country, and it is in line with the movement of the Protestant Episcopal and the Presbyterian denominations, the former having built St. Alban’s Cathedral as a national institution, while the latter have been planning for the consolidation of several congregations for the purpose of erecting a national Presbyterian cathedral.
Is Parent Organization.
The Mt. Vernon Church is the parent organization of the denominations in Washington. It was organized in 1850, the first congregation being established on Eighth street, between H and I streets northwest, and was connected with the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
The existence of the church, though continuous, has been at times quite uncertain, the vicissitudes met with during the civil war having nearly wiped it out. At one time its place of worship was a small frame structure on P street, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets.
The present church building at the northeast corner of Ninth and K streets was dedicated in June, 1869, and its walls have since resounded with the eloquence of many of the noted ministers of the Southern Methodist Conference, its own ministers having been among the most brilliant and gifted of the denomination comprising Rev. Dr. William V. TUDOR, Dr. S. S. ROZEL, Dr. Alpheus W. WILSON, the Rev. William P. HARRISON, the Rev. S. W. HADDAWAY, and others of almost equal note. The present pastor, the Rev. William F. LOCKE, has been an earnest worker for the church, and under his ministrations the church has continued to grow in membership and in the various branches of its endeavor.
Until the new church is ready the congregation of the Mt. Vernon Church will continue to worship in the present edifice, and as yet no plans have been considered for its final disposition.