Epworth Methodist Church, Lexington, Kentucky

After several years of vacancy, there might hope of rebirth for the former Epworth Methodist Church in  Lexington, Kentucky. Located at the corner of North Martin Luther King Boulevard and Rand Avenue, the circa 1918 church has seen its share of different users, and a new development plan proposes to convert the church into 20 multi-family units of permanent affordable rental housing. The city of Lexington is soliciting comments about the plan until January 26, 2024, so if you have some thoughts – share them! I am delighted by this news, for I’ve kept a wary eye on this building for years.

The church building that stands today is version 3.5 to be located on the site. Each iteration of the church owed its existence to an enterprising man – and the first pastor of Epworth Methodist – Reverend Edward L. Southgate. In 1891, Southgate purchased a 12-acre tract between East Fifth and East Sixth Streets, near the spacious grounds of the Duncan House (now Duncan Park). Southgate, with “zeal and vision,” not only pastored to his fledgling flock, but helped develop this section of Lexington. *

The members of what would become Epworth Methodist Church met in a “tiny frame church building” at 210 Engeman Place. ** This building, of which I can find no rendering, had in fact been moved from its first home on East Fifth Street (see my post about Shiloh Baptist Church). But Southgate was ambitious, and in 1894 a news article announced the imminent ground-breaking for a new church building.

The plans for the new church, designed by F.L. and E. W. Smith, called for it to “resemble somewhat the Central Christian Church, having a majestic tower at one end and sharp gable roof.”***

The building was going to be brick with stone trim, and the plan called for chapel toward the rear elevation that would seat 200m and the main portion of the church would hold 900 persons. The new church was dedicated on September 6, 1896.

In January 1918, plans for a new, $20,000 church building for the Epworth Methodist congregation was announced. I don’t know how much this new church differed from the 1896 building, but I can see the influence of the Craftsman and Colonial Revival styles in the 1934 image from the Lafayette Studios Collection. The brick appears to be wirecut, which was common on bungalows at the time, and the overall feeling is low and – somewhat boxy. The entry doors are to either side, and the facade under the portico is rather stark, with just windows with bracketed stone sills and a brick surround.

There is what appears to be a tower at the rear elevation (see left side of above photo), which I cannot possibly begin to explain. A remnant of the earlier church, perhaps?

The building that stands today is the result of a remodeling of the 1918 structure between 1934 and 1940. Approximately $12,000 was spent to add new Sunday school rooms and a balcony in the auditorium. The latter was accomplished by raising the front of the church one full story and the addition of a “colonial style” entrance portico. The wings also received heavy cornices with block modillions and arched windows in the new upper story.

But even a remodeled church could not keep the congregation from following the path to the suburbs. In the fall of 1950, the Epworth Methodist Church held its last service in the “60 year old building at Walnut and Rand Avenue.” (Yes, I wondered about that number as well. Sixty years old? Hmmm…)

Several other congregations have called this brick building home in the ensuing decades. And as church attendance has dropped for many denominations, too many historic churches have been razed – and in Lexington, the new construction taking their place has not been affordable housing. There’s been a rash of flip projects on the Northside of Lexington in the last decade, and affordable rental units downtown are in short supply. I haven’t seen the plans for this conversion project, but I hope the design is sensitive to the historic fabric of the building – and I am happy that at least some developers are willing to consider adaptive reuse.

 

 

*J. Owen Reynolds, History of Epworth Methodist Church, Lexington, Kentucky. Published 1960.

** Ibid.

***September 26, 1894 issue of The Kentucky Leader.