About
Us
175 Years of Christian Fellowship
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About
Us |
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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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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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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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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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Church Parade 1917 |
Graystone Church 1912 |
Reredos and Altar |
Sunday School 1928 |
| 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 name 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 of full Library, click here for details. Thanks for Visiting! |
