Our History...Yesterday and Today!
The beginnings of the present-day Harbor Springs United Methodist Church started in 1875 with the formation of the Union Sunday School, and the Methodist Sunday School was organized in June 1876. On September 18, 1876, the Methodist Episcopal Society of the Village of Little Traverse was formed as an outgrowth of the Sunday School. The Sunday School and church services were first held in the government school building located on East Third Street, just northwest of the present church building. Pastor Jonathan M. Whitney received the first three church members just 12 days later.
The first baptism was held on August 26, 1877, by immersion in Little Traverse Bay. The baptismal candidate was Jonathan Moorhead. In that fall, work began on the frame church on the same site where the brick church now stands. Chief Andrew Blackbird notarized the warranty deed for the property the church sits upon. Timbers were donated by Mr. Drake, and the men of the church cut them into boards. The construction was far enough along to allow Christmas "exercises" to be held in it that year. Construction continued and the church was pronounced "complete" in 1882.
The membership grew to 77 in just two short years with the debt on the entire church property paid off. The minister's salary was $400 per year with the parsonage rent also provided at $75 that year. The church was heated with wood, and oil lamps lit the sanctuary. Improvements to the church that year included a new pulpit and lamp (cost $35) and repairs totaling $105. The Annual Report of the M.E. Church that year includes the statement, "Let us take heart for the coming year, the outlook was never better, we are free from all debt, we have without and within a neat and attractive church, our congregations were never larger and now all we need is more earnestness, more steadiness, more intense devotion to God's House and we doubt not that the new year will be one of even greater success."
The first instrument used in the church was a pump organ bought in 1899 for $64. Membership that year was 177. Through many of the years only a piano was used for worship. A new Baldwin electric organ was given to the church in 1950 as a memorial. Then, in 1980, a new $12,500 Allen Digital Computer organ was installed. The Sohmer grand piano was donated by the Feathers and the Medlunds in 1981.
Groups such as the Ladies' Aid Society, Epworth League and Wesleyan Club sponsored any number of good works. They served meals to down-and-out families and made the gospel real to generations of schoolchildren. In 1900, they held a "bee" to move an old stage coach station to a lot behind the church, where it became the parsonage. They held revivals and ice cream socials and gospel concerts. They proudly sponsored their own LeRoy Lightfoot as a missionary to India in the 1920s and again in the late 1940s. A community food pantry was housed in the church basement for over 40 years until the need outgrew the space available and the pantry was moved to the Holy Childhood Community Center on December 21, 2009. Over 70 families use the pantry each Monday morning.
The frame church building stood as built with the exception of two additions made in 1897. The last service was held on Sunday, November 2, and it was torn down to make way for the new building on November 5, 1913. The foundation walls were completed November 26, with the walls and roof finished just a few hours before winter set in. The present brick church building was complete and dedicated a little over a year later, on December 13, 1914, during the pastorate of the Rev. Harry Walker. Church services were held in the Town Hall during construction.
Earl H. Mead was the architect, and he also designed the 1915 high school building and the Harbor Springs Library building. The total cost of the new church was approximately $17,000, which included furnishings and was arranged as an auditorium with theatre seating. During renovations in 1959, the location of the altar was changed and the theatre seats were replaced with pews. The 1996 remodel included the addition of an elevator and new bathrooms with full handicap accessibility. The interior sanctuary's plaster was repaired and painted during the winter of 2019 and we are also restoring the stained-glass windows--one at a time. The large west-side transept window overlooking Gardner St. has recently been inspected (2023) and will require a complete removal to be restored and repaired. Donations are graciously accepted to restore this first of many windows! Scheduled date of repair is Spring 2025.
The original church bell is mounted on two hand-hewn timbers in the present bell tower. The bell's inscription reads: "Harbor Springs M.E. Church - E. Marble; pastor 1882 - God With Us." The bell was forged in Baltimore, Maryland, by Henry McShane & Co. and has two different tones provided by the hand-pulled bell cords which still calls the congregation to Sunday worship.
The History of the Gospel Volunteers:
In the summer of 1926, the Rev. John Alexander, pastor of the then First Methodist Church of Harbor Springs, began a series of Sunday services at 4:30 in the afternoon. Special invitations were extended to the employees of resorters who were unable to attend the morning service. This first interracial service in the area quickly grew from an audience of 30 to over 100 and in 1927 the time of service was changed to 7:30 on Sunday evenings.
A small choir was formed under the direction of Fred Williams with non-professional singers which grew to a group of 38 singers composed of 13 church denominations from 34 cities in 17 states through its 25 years of summer concerts. All were employed as domestic help for resort families who summered in the area. The Gospel Volunteers sang for Sunday evening services as well as presenting concerts around the northern Michigan area. The Annual Sacred Concert held at the HSUMC, which seated 250 people, would be overfilled with between 500-600 people who would sit on the window sills and fill the outside sidewalks. Mrs. Grace Goatley, from Muncie, Indiana, directed the choir each summer with a program of gospel music, familiar spirituals and favorite hymns in appreciation for "the rare and unique privilege of worshipping at the Harbor Springs Methodist Church".
Today, over 148 years later, the Harbor Springs United Methodist Church has 60 members and continues its active Sunday School and Bible Study classes. Pasty sales and turkey dinners continue to fund the church finances. The United Women in Faith (UMW) host a November Holiday Bazaar which features the talents of the congregation with a huge variety of hand-made creations, soup luncheon and cookie walk! The Bazaar funds missions supporting women, youth, children and families throughout the world.
On December 29, 2019, our sister church of Alanson UMC, merged with Harbor Springs and became one congregation meeting at the Harbor Springs location.
Baptisms are no longer conducted in the Bay, and the wood stoves and oil lamps are long gone. But the faith shared with neighbors, and the warm, homelike fellowship where children are taught the living word of God, continues.
The United Methodist Church of Harbor Springs is part of the Michigan Conference, and information about the Conference can be found at http://www.michiganumc.org. Additional information about the United Methodist Church and its principles can also be found at www.umc.org.
The beginnings of the present-day Harbor Springs United Methodist Church started in 1875 with the formation of the Union Sunday School, and the Methodist Sunday School was organized in June 1876. On September 18, 1876, the Methodist Episcopal Society of the Village of Little Traverse was formed as an outgrowth of the Sunday School. The Sunday School and church services were first held in the government school building located on East Third Street, just northwest of the present church building. Pastor Jonathan M. Whitney received the first three church members just 12 days later.
The first baptism was held on August 26, 1877, by immersion in Little Traverse Bay. The baptismal candidate was Jonathan Moorhead. In that fall, work began on the frame church on the same site where the brick church now stands. Chief Andrew Blackbird notarized the warranty deed for the property the church sits upon. Timbers were donated by Mr. Drake, and the men of the church cut them into boards. The construction was far enough along to allow Christmas "exercises" to be held in it that year. Construction continued and the church was pronounced "complete" in 1882.
The membership grew to 77 in just two short years with the debt on the entire church property paid off. The minister's salary was $400 per year with the parsonage rent also provided at $75 that year. The church was heated with wood, and oil lamps lit the sanctuary. Improvements to the church that year included a new pulpit and lamp (cost $35) and repairs totaling $105. The Annual Report of the M.E. Church that year includes the statement, "Let us take heart for the coming year, the outlook was never better, we are free from all debt, we have without and within a neat and attractive church, our congregations were never larger and now all we need is more earnestness, more steadiness, more intense devotion to God's House and we doubt not that the new year will be one of even greater success."
The first instrument used in the church was a pump organ bought in 1899 for $64. Membership that year was 177. Through many of the years only a piano was used for worship. A new Baldwin electric organ was given to the church in 1950 as a memorial. Then, in 1980, a new $12,500 Allen Digital Computer organ was installed. The Sohmer grand piano was donated by the Feathers and the Medlunds in 1981.
Groups such as the Ladies' Aid Society, Epworth League and Wesleyan Club sponsored any number of good works. They served meals to down-and-out families and made the gospel real to generations of schoolchildren. In 1900, they held a "bee" to move an old stage coach station to a lot behind the church, where it became the parsonage. They held revivals and ice cream socials and gospel concerts. They proudly sponsored their own LeRoy Lightfoot as a missionary to India in the 1920s and again in the late 1940s. A community food pantry was housed in the church basement for over 40 years until the need outgrew the space available and the pantry was moved to the Holy Childhood Community Center on December 21, 2009. Over 70 families use the pantry each Monday morning.
The frame church building stood as built with the exception of two additions made in 1897. The last service was held on Sunday, November 2, and it was torn down to make way for the new building on November 5, 1913. The foundation walls were completed November 26, with the walls and roof finished just a few hours before winter set in. The present brick church building was complete and dedicated a little over a year later, on December 13, 1914, during the pastorate of the Rev. Harry Walker. Church services were held in the Town Hall during construction.
Earl H. Mead was the architect, and he also designed the 1915 high school building and the Harbor Springs Library building. The total cost of the new church was approximately $17,000, which included furnishings and was arranged as an auditorium with theatre seating. During renovations in 1959, the location of the altar was changed and the theatre seats were replaced with pews. The 1996 remodel included the addition of an elevator and new bathrooms with full handicap accessibility. The interior sanctuary's plaster was repaired and painted during the winter of 2019 and we are also restoring the stained-glass windows--one at a time. The large west-side transept window overlooking Gardner St. has recently been inspected (2023) and will require a complete removal to be restored and repaired. Donations are graciously accepted to restore this first of many windows! Scheduled date of repair is Spring 2025.
The original church bell is mounted on two hand-hewn timbers in the present bell tower. The bell's inscription reads: "Harbor Springs M.E. Church - E. Marble; pastor 1882 - God With Us." The bell was forged in Baltimore, Maryland, by Henry McShane & Co. and has two different tones provided by the hand-pulled bell cords which still calls the congregation to Sunday worship.
The History of the Gospel Volunteers:
In the summer of 1926, the Rev. John Alexander, pastor of the then First Methodist Church of Harbor Springs, began a series of Sunday services at 4:30 in the afternoon. Special invitations were extended to the employees of resorters who were unable to attend the morning service. This first interracial service in the area quickly grew from an audience of 30 to over 100 and in 1927 the time of service was changed to 7:30 on Sunday evenings.
A small choir was formed under the direction of Fred Williams with non-professional singers which grew to a group of 38 singers composed of 13 church denominations from 34 cities in 17 states through its 25 years of summer concerts. All were employed as domestic help for resort families who summered in the area. The Gospel Volunteers sang for Sunday evening services as well as presenting concerts around the northern Michigan area. The Annual Sacred Concert held at the HSUMC, which seated 250 people, would be overfilled with between 500-600 people who would sit on the window sills and fill the outside sidewalks. Mrs. Grace Goatley, from Muncie, Indiana, directed the choir each summer with a program of gospel music, familiar spirituals and favorite hymns in appreciation for "the rare and unique privilege of worshipping at the Harbor Springs Methodist Church".
Today, over 148 years later, the Harbor Springs United Methodist Church has 60 members and continues its active Sunday School and Bible Study classes. Pasty sales and turkey dinners continue to fund the church finances. The United Women in Faith (UMW) host a November Holiday Bazaar which features the talents of the congregation with a huge variety of hand-made creations, soup luncheon and cookie walk! The Bazaar funds missions supporting women, youth, children and families throughout the world.
On December 29, 2019, our sister church of Alanson UMC, merged with Harbor Springs and became one congregation meeting at the Harbor Springs location.
Baptisms are no longer conducted in the Bay, and the wood stoves and oil lamps are long gone. But the faith shared with neighbors, and the warm, homelike fellowship where children are taught the living word of God, continues.
The United Methodist Church of Harbor Springs is part of the Michigan Conference, and information about the Conference can be found at http://www.michiganumc.org. Additional information about the United Methodist Church and its principles can also be found at www.umc.org.
