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The
United Methodist Church
was originally referred to as The Methodist-Episcopal Church; as
Methodism was a movement within the Episcopal, (Anglican),
Church. Its founder, John Wesley, was an Anglican Priest who
sought to reform the Anglican Church which he felt was not addressing
the social or religious problems that existed in 18th century England.
Our Church
began effectively in 1772 when Francis Asbury came to Haddonfield to
preach. Meetings continued irregularly in Rowantown, (Westmont)
and Haddonfield until 1829 when the first congregation was formed.
These 32 members initially met in a schoolhouse on Grove and Lake Sts
and shared it with congregations from other denominations.
By 1835 this group was able to construct their own one-room church
located off King's Highway, where the Methodist Cemetery is
today. |
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(Pictures:
On the top right is the Grove Street
Schoolhouse, which has since been demolished.
(Pictures( On the
upper right is an artists rendition of the 1835 Church off King's
Highway).
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1857 Church
(FortNightly Bld)
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Our
Congregation Grew
along with the town's population. In the 1850's Haddonfield became a
stop on the railroad line and made the transition from small town to
suburb. We were now 140 adult members with over 100 enrolled in Sunday
School, reason enough to build a full size church in 1857 which still
stands today and is known as the Fortnightly Building. Among the
improvements listed were "stalls for horses and buggies".
Rev. Peter Cartwright spoke here in 1860 - Cartwright was known as an
outspoken abolitionist and one who lost an election to
Abraham Lincoln several years before.
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1912
Graystone Church
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Several of the
clergy went on to serve in the Civil War, and our cemetery has over 22
Civil War veterans buried in it. Not long after the church was built
it became apparent that it was not well suited to the new inventions
of electric lighting and indoor plumbing. By 1910 the
congregation had grown to over 300 with an equal amount enrolled in
Sunday School. Many now owned "horseless carriages" which
had to compete with traditional buggies for parking spaces. The Rev.
Pennington Corson directed the building of the Graystone Church in
1912, which was situated exactly where our present church stands.
(The photos below are "Thumbnails", click on the photo to
enlarge, use the "Back" button to return). |
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This church served the
congregation well until 1955. One October night the church was filled
with over 125 children rehearsing a play. The wiring, circa 1912,
failed, resulting in a massive fire that destroyed almost all of
the church. From 1956 to 1958 our congregation met in the auditorium
of Haddonfield High School. Another Corson, Rev. Lynn Corson directed
the building of our new church which has also served us well since
1958.
As time went by it became apparent that the facilities here could not
cope with a very large and active congregation and the 44 outside
organizations that use our building. The heating system is left
over from the 1912 church, most upper floor rooms unusable in the
summer due to heat, the restrooms inadequate, and most of the church inaccessible
to those who are physically challenged. At this time Rev. George
Morris is leading the Faith at Work campaign which is raising funds to
remove the older buildings and construct new ones with state of the
art facilities which a congregation of our size requires. The Sayre
Center will also be built at the same time. The center will have
several functions as well as serving as a reception area. It is
named after Rev. Dr. Charles Sayre who was Senior Minister at HUMC for
25 years.
For more history and
information on the United Methodist Church, see the websites contained
on our "Links" page. More history of our Methodist
Church will be contained in the "Archives" page, which is
yet to come. HUMC also maintains a full Library, click here for
details.
Thanks for Visiting!
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