FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN GLENDALE

BUILDING A GREAT MUSEUM FOR THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

In 1903, Glendale California was a small town surrounded by cling peach orchards developed in nearby Lankershim (now North Hollywood) at the end of the 19th century.  Initially members of the Methodist Episcopal community were served by a circuit-rider minister who rode from town to town conducting services. In the 1960s, when he was nearly 100 years old, Webb McKelvey (who was a member of the first graduating class from now the University of Southern California) told this writer that his father was a circuit rider minister who served Glendale on his rounds by horseback.

(Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church founded the University of Southern California to serve as a college and Methodist seminary.)

Rev. Charles Norton served as the Glendale church's first pastor and oversaw the construction of the first wooden church in 1906.

 Present sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church of Glendale, California. Postcards are gifts from Gary Fredburg 2014. (click on images to enlarge them)

 134 North Kenwood, Glendale, California 91206  - telephone (818) 243-2105