Trinity United Methodist Church

Historic Timeline

1812: The original 65-member congregation built Wesley Chapel at the corner of East Oglethorpe Avenue and Lincon Street. Its membership was about half white and half African American.

1833: Wesley Chapel hosted Savannah's centennial celebration.

1840s: The church, having grown to more than 400 members, needed to move. The congregation paid the Telfair family $8,500 for the lot next door to their mansion on St. James (now Telfair) Square.

February 1848: The cornerstone of the new building was laid. Architect John B. Hogg (1826-1880) modeled the building after the Wesley Chapel in London. The mason for the project was Norbonne Radcliffe of North Carolina and the carpenters were John F. Sturtevant and Francis Blair.

1850: The new sanctuary, along with a one-story educational building, opened. Construction costs were $20,000.

1861-1865: Trinity Church remained open through the Civil War, even as Union soldiers camped in the square.

1876: A yellow fever epidemic killed more than 1,000 people in the city. One of them was Trinity Church's leader, the Rev. Edward H. Meyers. His last words, according to a church plaque were, "I am ready and have been for some time."

1900-1930s: Trinity Church's membership soared, reaching more than 2,000. Post-World War II: Membership dwindled as Savannahians moved into the suburbs.

1991: A fire damaged the sanctuary and the education building, a 1927 addition to the original structure.

1993: After two years of holding services at Sipple's Mortuary, Trinity Church reopened. Repairs cost an estimated $2 million.

1995: Trinity Church gained inclusion in "John Wesley's American Parish," a United Methodist Church designation that marks sites in the Savannah area where the founder of Methodism lived and worked.

2005: After several years of discussion, studies and fundraising, the congregation completed $800,000 restoration project. Later in the year, it won a preservation award from Historic Savannah Foundation.

2011: Completion of the restoration of the 1949 Moeller Pipe Organ.