Bethlehem Methodist Church

Front: This church, on this site since 1889, grew out of Sardis Methodist Church, a mission station organized in 1887 with a small frame church on Old Camden Rd. 3 mi. E. When that church burned in 1889, its elders accepted a donation of 4 acres here from David Byrd for “New Sardis Methodist Church.” This church was completed and dedicated in 1890 as Bethlehem Methodist Church. Reverse: At first on the Clyde circuit, this church, averaging about 250 members in its early years, became the main church of the Bethlehem Circuit when that circuit was created in 1910. A parsonage built that year, on an acre donated by F.W. Howle, served as the circuit parsonage until 1953. Bethlehem School, across the road from the church, was a rural primary school from 1906 to 1913.