East Haines Street, south side, east of the original Methodist Meeting House

Background:

In 1823 Germantown's Methodists built a new, larger church a few doors up the lane from their original meeting house built in 1804. A burial ground lay behind the church. Many alterations were made to this one-story stone church with its big galleries; but by 1858 the flourishing congregation required another new building, this time a brick structure.

The congregation moved once again in 1898, constructing the First Methodist Church on the corner of Germantown Avenue and High Street. In 1903 the brick structure was dedicated as the A.C. Harmer Combined School for Girls.

Sources:

• GHS: Jellett, Edwin C. "Germantown Historical Miscellany," p. 250 (text).

• GHS: Photo Scrapbook 2, George Clarence Johnson. "Pictorial Germantown Road..," pp. 88-90 (text).

• HSP: Campbell Collection, vol. 33, p. 151: "Y.M.C.A.'s Big Expansion" (news article with photograph of the Y.M.C.A. and a sketch of the original Methodist Meeting House).

• HSP: Perkins Collection, vol. 62, p. 43: "Dedication of A.C. Harmer School" (news article with photo of Dorothy Reger and woodcut of the original Methodist Meeting House).