McKendree United Methodist Church

The McKendree United Methodist Church is home to the oldest continuous congregation in Nashville—dating back to 1787. Since its founding, McKendree Methodist has served as a center of religious life in the downtown core. McKendree can also claim several “firsts” including sharing Nashville’s first Sunday School with First Presbyterian and First Baptist, the first Southern Methodist Women’s Missionary Society, and the oldest known African-American congregation. Capers Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was founded as a mission of McKendree. McKendree established a church at this location in 1832 with a congregation of 1,200 members. The church was named after William McKendree, the first American-born Methodist bishop, who dedicated the first sanctuary here in 1834.

During the Civil War, the pastor of McKendree, Reverend S. E. Baldwin was jailed, as were most other ministers in the South. A northern bishop appointed a man named “Mr. Gee” to lead the church, but the members refused to call him Reverend and never considered him their pastor. In fact, his first name remains unknown to this day. Like Downtown Presbyterian, McKendree was used as a Union hospital. Damage to the building was so severe that the entire interior had to be remodeled after the war. Eventually, the church constructed a new building in 1879 and again in 1910. The new sanctuary included ten beautiful windows that depict the story of Jesus’s life. These were created by the Von Gerichen Art Glass Company of Columbus, Ohio, who used a method of painting directly onto the glass, rather than the more widely used stain glass method, which mixes paint into the glass.

Since 1910, McKendree Methodist has renovated several times to accommodate their members and to expand community outreach programs. The first change came in the 1930s when the Educational Building was added to the rear of the sanctuary. In 1966, a major addition was made to the front of the church that provided four floors of classroom space, a kitchen and fellowship hall, and a performance practice space. Today, the back part of the church serves as a homeless shelter run by McKendree. The church also ministers to the community through its Christmas in July school supply drive, Christmas Eve dinner, and school mentoring programs. 

Facing McKendree, turn RIGHT and continue walking west up Church Street for another block. Our next stop, the Nashville Public Library, is on your left. Walk into the lobby and go to the second floor to reach the library’s special collections and the Civil Rights Reading Room.