As I was leaving the Fountain City Library the other day, I paused to check out the display cases on both sides of the doors. There’s always something interesting in them. This month, it’s memorabilia from Fountain City United Methodist Church.

The church rests in the heart of Fountain City, on Hotel Avenue just up from the park, behind the duck pond and down the hill from what once was Central High School. In his book, Fountain City: People Who Made a Difference, Dr. Jim Tumblin included a timeline of major Knox County and Knoxville events, but highlighted those relative to Fountain City. In 1825 he noted, “Fountain City Methodist Church established.” Five years later he notes that religious camp meetings began in the park, no denominations specified.

For 200 years, a congregation has gathered under the several permutations of FCUMC and at its several locations, the first of which was simply a place: no walls, no roof, just a rise in the ground about 50 feet west of the spring house that now exists on the duck pond, that wasn’t there in 1925. So probably in what is now the Summit medical building lower parking lot.

FCUMC memorabilia at Fountain City Library (Photo: Beth Kinnane)

By 1828, a simple log cabin structure had been built so congregants could worship out of the elements. By 1845 the congregation had built a new church on the land where the church sits today, white clapboard with a single steeple that was apparently referred to by some as “the white house among the mighty trees.” It served for 45 years until yet another church was constructed in 1890, an English style church with a shingled roof and multiple steeples. By then, the congregation had grown to 95.

But tragedy struck in short order. The pretty new church burnt completely to the ground in 1892. While awaiting the construction of yet another church, the members met in the auditorium at Holbrook College (which begat Central High School which begat Gresham Middle School). The somewhat Gothic looking “Akron plan” church, designed to have extra rooms to accommodate Sunday school classes and other activities outside the sanctuary, was completed and dedicated in August of 1893. It served for 65 years.

FCUMC memorabilia at Fountain City Library (Photo: Beth Kinnane)

All of this wonderful information about the actual buildings as well as founders, funders, and history, including artistic renderings of the first three churches, can be found on the FCUMC website under 200 Years by the Big Springs: A History of Fountain City United Methodist Church, written by the Rev. Dr. James A. Dougherty. It’s 21 pages that not only celebrates the FCUMC’s structural history, but the people who made it happen. You can find it here.

The church as it is today was finished in late 1958, just in time for Christmas. There’s a dedicated hallway to celebrate the bicentennial, and a special worship service planned for Sunday, September 21 (for more information go here).

Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.

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