First United Methodist Church / First United Methodist Church

In 1830 the Reverend James T. Robe, a young Methodist circuit rider, delivered the first sermon in the village of Bronson, later Kalamazoo, at the home of the town’s founder, Titus Bronson. After his appointment to the Kalamazoo Mission in 1832, Robe preached throughout a circuit that extended from Niles to Allegan. In 1833 the Reverend Richard C. Meek formed a local Society of Methodists, and this eight-member congregation became Kalamazoo’s first organized church. The Kalamazoo Methodist Society met first in the home of George Patterson and later in a schoolhouse. The congregation built its first church in 1842 at Academy and Church Streets. A second church, built in 1866, burned in 1926. Ernest Batterson, a church member and architect, designed the present Late Gothic Revival building, dedicated in 1929. An educational wing was added in 1949. The congregation assisted in founding a number of area Methodist churches.