Asbury United Methodist Church (Chattanooga, Tennessee) Explained

Highland Park Methodist
Episcopal Church
Location:1900 Bailey Ave.
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Coordinates:35.0336°N -85.2756°W
Built:1909
Architect:Reuben Harrison Hunt
Added:February 29, 1980
Refnum:80003813

Asbury United Methodist Church, originally Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church, is a historic church on Bailey Avenue in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The congregation was organized in 1889 as the Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation soon moved into a new frame church that it used for about 20 years before completing the current building.[1] The current church building is a brick structure in a Gothic design created by architect Reuben Harrison Hunt.[1] It was completed in 1909, dedicated in 1911,[1] and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church changed its name to Asbury Methodist Church in 1938, when the Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South, merged.[1] It later added "United" to its name when the United Methodist Church was formed. Another local congregation with a similar name, Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church, South, became St. Andrew's Methodist Church and later St. Andrew's United Methodist Church.[1] Asbury United Methodist Church closed on July 1, 1984. Its congregation merged with Brainerd United Methodist Church and the church property was sold to Highland Park Baptist Church, which renamed the former Asbury Methodist building as the "Asbury Chapel".[1] [2] St. Andrew's closed in 2004.[3] When Highland Park Baptist Church relocated to Harrison, Tennessee, in 2013, it sold Asbury Chapel and six other buildings in the Highland Park neighborhood to Redemption Point Church,[4] a Church of God congregation based in Ooltewah.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Asbury United Methodist Church . American Guild of Organists, Chattanooga Chapter . Regional Organs Database.
  2. Web site: Highland Park Baptist . https://web.archive.org/web/20080821154920/http://southeasttennessee.com/www/docs/663.1556/baptist-church-chattanooga-tn.html . dead . August 21, 2008 . Southeast Tennessee Tourism Association . February 20, 2014 .
  3. News: St. Andrews Center getting Chattanooga building . Chattanooga Times Free Press . January 18, 2011.
  4. Web site: Former Highland Park Baptist Church Sells 2 More Of Its Properties . June 12, 2013 . Ruth . Robinson . The Chattanoogan.
  5. Web site: Church of God Congregation to Purchase Tennessee Temple Campus . FaithNews.cc . February 17, 2014.