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Recorded HistoryThe Earliest RecordPrior to 1875, there were Methodists living in the general area surrounding Highlands but, so far as is known, there was no specific Methodist Church. If there were services of any kind, they were possibly held in the log Law House which stood at the Salt Rock, an ancient Cherokee Indian camping ground in front of Helen's Barn where Wright Square is now. The log Law House predated the founding of Highlands by more than a decade. The first Highlands Union Sunday School was held on Sunday, March 12, 1876, with 26 attending. Baxter White, a local merchant, was the superintendent. Building the ChurchOn July 3, 1882, Samuel T, and Katherine E. Kelsey and Carlos S. and Clara M. Sherman sold lots 101, 103 and 105 of Main Street to T. Baxter White, William Partridge, Daniel Rochester, and J. L. Potts. "The Rev. John H. Moore, pastor of the Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church (the church of the Northern Methodists) took out a mortgage of $500 and posted a $250 bond from the Board of Church Extension in Pennsylvania to be paid back in five years" and hired Capt. Charles Boynton to oversee construction of the church building. Although the building was completed in August 1884, almost another year would pass - July 5, 1885 - before the building was dedicated. In December 1888, Katherine and Samuel T. Kelsey sold Lots 313 and 315 on Spruce Street to Stanhope Hill, J. W. Brown, and John Norton, trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Building the church almost failed, "for no sooner had they completed the new sanctuary in 1890 than during one blustery March night the wind blew the structure plumb off its foundation." It required two years to pay the repair costs but the "Southern Methodist Church would survive at this location for the next twenty years." Into the 20th CenturyIn 1904, the Northern and Southern
Methodists reconciled their differences and decided to unite. The Northern
Methodists sold their building to the Baptists and, in 1907, the Southern
Methodist Church was torn down. The present church site, on the south side
of Main Street, was purchased in 1908.
The church remained in this form until May 1990. We are indebted to Dr. Randolph P. Shaffner for giving us permission to quote from his book Heart of the Blue Ridge Highlands, North Carolina. |
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Copyright © 2007
Highlands United Methodist Church
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Two
attempts to build on the site were foiled when heavy winds blew down the
rafters. With John J. Gottwals, a carpenter and architect supervising the
construction, the sanctuary was finally completed and dedicated on August
20, 1909. The church "was heated by a large potbellied stove that stood in
the middle of the sanctuary. There was no basement, no chapel, no Sunday
School rooms, and until the advent of electricity in Highlands during the late
twenties, oil lamps furnished the only lighting." The building was roughly
the size of the present sanctuary without the front porch and the present large
pulpit.
Using plans drawn by Dr. Upton C.
Ewing, renovations began In the mid 1950's. The building was rock veneered
and contained rooms for the Sunday School, a child care center, and a large
fellowship hall, modern kitchen, pastor's office, large front porch, and rock
walkways. In 1955 a 40-foot lighted steeple was erected, a memorial chapel
added and the new building was dedicated on July 20, 1958.