The Methodism movement had its early origins in the 1770s in the Franklin County area. By 1830 land was purchased at $300 to secure a lot at the corner of E. Noble and W. Main Street, the site of the present church. A building was erected and opened for worship July 3, 1859. Later in 1862, a lot adjourning the church property was bought for $2260 and became the parsonage lot until 1963.
The Church was a “source of inspiration and comfort” in the community even in difficult times. “By October 1, 1866, it was reported that the Church built in 1859 was free of debt, although there was still indebtedness on the parsonage. Church records for this date show 152 white members and 43 colored members.” As the years passed, the Church struggle to pay its bills and support its minister as recorded in the early 1880s, but regardless the ministers who came and went interpreted the needs of the people and the Church continued on its journey to serve God and the community.
“By 1897, the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society had grown to 30 members. This organization had already started “Bright Jewels”, the children’s Missionary Class. This year the Church property was valued at $3000 and the parsonage at $2500.”
In November 1898 a committee was appointed to develop and execute plans for a new church building which was completed by July 1890 and dedicated May 22, 1904. “The Church was decorated with palms, ferns, water lilies, and roses. Fine music added greatly to the occasion.”
Sunday School rooms were built on to the existing church structure in 1914, and the church flourished until the community was impacted by the Spanish Flu epidemic. At one point in time, all the area church services were called off crippling the church finances. With recovery occurring over the next few years, the Church installed a new lighting system in 1926, but then felt another economic hardship soon after during the Depression.
The later years of 1930s brought hope and renewal. In August 1938, the first choir director, Professor I. Dean Moon, was hired and stay in the position for over 20 years. Sunday School classes outgrew meeting places by the fall of 1939 and the church officials initiated plans to address building needs.
Chimes were installed in the roof tower in 1948 and played each day until the playing mechanism malfunctioned.
By 1955, the Conference authorized the appointing of a building committee to undergo plans for a new education building and a new parsonage. Groundbreaking began March 27, 1957 and within a month the corner stone laying ceremony took place. “The first service was held in the new education building, September 27, 1958…The final cost of the building was over $80,000.” Soon after the Sanctuary organ, well over 40 years in use, needed restoration and a memorial organ fund established. This project was completed by May 1967.
In the late months of 1961, the Church began to formulate plans to build a new parsonage. The brick home on North Main Street (current parsonage) was finished in 1962 for $24,724.
In time the Church established the Yolanda Jones Development Center within a former home adjacent to the church property, which served exceptional children in a daycare setting. This initiative was overseen by the Reverend Vassar Jones (pastor during 1970-1974) whose daughter required special developmental care. The Center closed in 1998 due to the building’s safety integrity and because of the Church’s plan to build a new fellowship hall/church office next to the current Education Building.
By 1998 the new Fellowship Hall building was completed and provided space for the church offices, a commercial kitchen, meeting room, a library, a parlor, and two children’s classrooms. The Fellowship Hall was named and dedicated in memory of church member, United Methodist Women member, and children’s Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Fannileen Lee, in recognition of her service to the Church. The dedication occurred on September 11, 2016.
The Louisburg United Methodist Preschool (LUMPS) was opened in September 2006 under the leadership of Mrs. Ann Peoples, church member and former elementary school teacher, and assisted by many other retired teachers, to address an outreach need among Church families and the community. The Preschool serves children between the ages of three and five in a half-day program several days a week.
By 2018, a columbarium was built within the Edgar Owens Memorial Garden between the Sanctuary and Parsonage grounds.
*Content was retrieved from the LUMC 1969 Pictorial Directory Minister’s Message and written by The Reverend Norwood L. Jones (pastor during 1966-1970).
For more information see Covenant Made on Earth: A History of Louisburg United Methodist Church, 1785-1995 by Sarah I. Davis