Church Street Methodist Church (Knoxville, Tennessee)

Church Street United Methodist Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	913 Henley St., Knoxville, Tennessee
Coordinates	35°57′40″N 83°55′14″W / 35.96111°N 83.92056°W / 35.96111; -83.92056Coordinates: 35°57′40″N 83°55′14″W / 35.96111°N 83.92056°W / 35.96111; -83.92056
Area	4.6 acres (1.9 ha)
Built	1930 (1930)
Architect	Pope, John Russell; et al.
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
MPS	Knoxville and Knox County MPS
NRHP reference #	09000115
Added to NRHP	March 10, 2009

Church Street United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church located on Henley Street in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The church building is considered a Knoxville landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Church Street Methodist congregation formed in 1816. Initially, it met in a building on what is now Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville. In 1836 the congregation moved into a new building on Church Street between Walnut and Market Streets, where it met until 1863 when the building was confiscated by Union troops for use as a hospital during the American Civil War. Around 1870, the congregation relocated to a brick building one block east of its former location on Church Street, and in 1878 it moved into its new Victorian Gothic church building erected on its former 410 Church Street location.. Some say this building was designed by Knoxville architect Alexander Campbell Bruce. Planning to replace that church building began in 1921 when the congregation recognized a need for a larger facility to accommodate its growth, but little progress had been made as of February 1928, when a fire destroyed the building on Church Street. The congregation then acquired the Henley Street site to construct a new, larger church building. In the move to Henley Street, the church retained its old name of Church Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South. (In 1939, it became Church Street Methodist Church.)

The congregation decided to retain the Gothic Revival architectural style for its new building. Architect John Russell Pope of New York City was hired to design the new facility, in cooperation with local architect Charles I. Barber of the Knoxville firm of Barber & McMurry. The design was similar to several other Gothic Revival buildings that Pope’s firm had designed, including buildings on the Yale University campus and churches in Larchmont and New Rochelle, New York, and Columbus, Ohio. Construction of the new building began in March 1930 and was completed the following year, with the first worship service held in January 1931.