St. John's Methodist Church

Description

St. John United Methodist Church was a historic church on College Street in Shelbyville, Kentucky. It was built in 1896 and added to the National Register in 1984.The congregation was originally affiliated with the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. The land to build a church was acquired from David H. Wayne in 1887, but construction did not commence until 1894, being completed in 1896. Over the next century, many notable figures in the African American history of Shelby County were members here, including Zora Clark, the first African American in the county to receive a nursing degree; T.S. Baxter, the first African American elected to the Shelbyville city council; and Emma Payne Roland, the first African American reporter for the local newspaper, the Shelby Sentinel. After various conference mergers, it eventually became a congregation of the United Methodist Church, and in 1996, moved to a modern worship space at 212 Martin Luther King Junior Street nearby.The church was one of the best local examples of Carpenter Gothic architecture, known for its tall steeple and 30 stained glass windows. At the time of its construction, it was the largest African American congregation in town, and served the largest congregation.