Methodist Church enters 14th decade with new sanctuary
MONMOUTH, Ill. — When the current reconstruction of the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church is completed, it will be the fourth house of worship for the oldest congregation in Monmouth, organized in 1834.
The current church, constructed of 350,000 red bricks manufactured at the Radmacher brickyard in Monmouth, has stood on the southwest corner of Broadway and Second Street for 13 decades. When it was dedicated in January 1890, its price tag was $28,000 — more than $750,000 in today’s dollars.
The neo-Gothic church was designed by the noted architectural team of Weary & Kramer of Akron, Ohio, whose portfolio included more than a dozen churches now on the National Register of Historic Places in cities from Brooklyn, New York, to Birmingham, Alabama, to Dubuque, Iowa. David Myers, a contractor originally from Akron who had worked with Weary & Kramer, had since relocated to Burlington, Iowa, and was hired by the Monmouth Methodists to oversee construction.
The new building was a remarkable upgrade from the congregation’s original home, known as the Monmouth Chapel. That wooden edifice, built in 1842 on East First Avenue behind the new church, resembled a barn, and by 1890, after having served for a time as a carpenter’s shop, had been converted to a stable for the Windsor House hotel, which stood directly west of the building.
In 1858, the Methodists purchased a lot from the city of Monmouth which had housed the town’s first schoolhouse and constructed a two-story frame building with a belfry, which was completed on the eve of the Civil War. Located on a corner across the street from the Monmouth Chapel, it would later be converted to a YMCA and be replaced by a brick YMCA on the site after the turn of the 20th century.
By 1887, the congregation had grown so large that a much grander church was envisioned. The following year, it purchased the homes of William Laferty, president of the First National Bank, and W. A. Grant, proprietor of the American House hotel, both located in the 200 block of East Broadway, as a building site. A cornerstone was laid on July 15, 1889, and less than six months later, a formal dedication was held for the new church, which seated 600 in its auditorium and an additional 500 in the adjoining galleries.
As the new church was rising during the summer and fall of 1889, the new First Presbyterian Church was also under construction on the diagonally opposite corner. That distinctive white limestone building featured an imposing tower, but the Methodists would not be outdone. Their building boasted an equally impressive tower, 86 feet high. The top portion of that tower would later be removed, sometime in the 1930s or ’40s.
When completed, the Methodist church did not yet have a pipe organ, but one was donated three years later by Mrs. Chancy Hardin. Incredibly, the pipes were installed directly in front of the magnificent “Trinity” stained glass window, so it couldn’t be viewed from the inside, and barely from the outside. That was remedied in 1932, when a new Hinner organ was installed, with pipes on either side of the window. It would remain until 1974, when a Moller organ was installed.
Another major improvement occurred in 1903, when the church’s cellar, which housed only the heating apparatus, was excavated into a finished basement. It was part of a major remodel that also opened up a large closed arch on the front of the building and converted it to an entrance with windows and a door.
Two years earlier, a parsonage had been constructed immediately west of the church. It would be converted into educational space in 1954, and in 1959 would be replaced by a new education wing that included a chapel, along with a pastor’s and secretary’s office.
Jeff Rankin is an editor and historian for Monmouth College. He has been researching, writing and speaking about western Illinois history for more than 40 years.
