GRANDVIEW METHODIST CHURCH

GRANDVIEW METHODIST CHURCH. The Methodist faith came to Dubuque in 1833. The first service was held in a tavern near the river. Later services were conducted in a log cabin church, considered the first church building in Iowa, in WASHINGTON PARK.

The need for a Sunday School in Dubuque's hill district led a group of ST. LUKE'S UNITED METHODIST CHURCH laymen to organize a Union Sunday School in the early 1870s. A wooden building on the corner of University Avenue (then Delhi Street) and Finley Street was the scene of the first services. Attendance was so large that it was decided a separate congregation should be formed. A church site was purchased on February 2, 1877, at a cost of $6,000 from a Mr. Life who was active in the Union Sunday School. Soon the building was known as "The White Church on the Hill" or the West Dubuque Methodist Episcopal Church. (1) This church was part of the Asbury Circuit that included Asbury, Reed’s Chapel, and Cottage Hill.

By 1890 the church was not large enough for the congregation. On February 4, 1891, a trustee's meeting led to the decision to sell the building and construct a new church. The cornerstone was laid for the new church at Grandview and Delhi STREETS, on May 31, 1891.(2) Dedication of the building was held on October 18, 1891. By order of the Upper Iowa Conference, the church was discontinued from the Dubuque Circuit and became a city church known as Grandview Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church.

The congregation was rocked with controversy in January 1894 when "Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay" was played during the evening service on January 23rd. As reported in the Chicago Herald and repeated in the Dubuque Daily Herald, Reverend Wheat, the former pastor rose and "denounced the profanation of God's temple with such music." Reverend Wilkinson, the current pastor, replied that he now ran the church and advised Wheat to mind his own business. The older people tended to be scandalized, while the younger people liked the music. (3)

Continued growth of the congregation by 1924 led to a property being purchased at the corner of Grandview Avenue and Bennett Street. On December 9, 1928, the church and community center, built at a cost of $110,000, were dedicated. The last week-long Tent Revival Meeting was held on the corner of Algona and Hale streets in 1931. Although there is no documented proof, it is believed that many members of the Masonic Order played a major role in having many of the stained glass windows in their temple moved to Grandview church before their old temple was demolished. (4) In 1968 the merger of the former Evangelical United Brethren and the former Methodist churches led to the name becoming Grandview Avenue United Methodist Church.

In 1998, forty-seven acres of land were purchased on Dubuque’s west side along Kennedy Road. The new church became operational on June 1, 2003, and on June 8, 2003, the congregation officially opened its new church at 3342 John Wesley Drive. The building was designed to do double duty as a Christian Montessori Preschool/Day Care Center.

In 2017 the church received the Multicultural Advocacy 365INK Award for its partnership with the village of Damka, Nigeria. The church hired six teachers, three support staff, a soccer coach, and an adult education teacher. The next step was helping the village construct classrooms with corrugated tin walls to replace classrooms made of cornstalks. Books and materials were to be provided by the Nigerian Department of Education. A long-term goal was to bring two students, every four years, to the United States to receive trade school training before returning to Nigeria. (5)

In the fall of 2013 the Dubuque City Council rejected a rezoning request from HARTIG DRUG COMPANY to purchase the Grandview Avenue site, demolish the building, and construct a 10,800-square foot pharmacy. A request was then made to change the zoning from R-1 single family residence to OC office complex district. (6) In 2004 the now empty building attracted Phil Keating who opened Keating's Men's Clothing. By 2006 the former church had been renamed Grandview Plaza and contained the clothing store, a Bible church, chiropractor, insurance agency, and union hall. While offering aesthetic appeal and a location away from commercial area, zoning prevented much of the signage that otherwise would have been used. (7)

In August, 2017 the congregation of ST. ELIAS THE PROPHET GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH found that their church had significant structural damage. The weight of the roof had shifted to the walls which began to bow. The building had to be immediately closed. In December, 2016 the congregation decided to purchase the former Grandview United Methodist Church and moved in during January, 2017 to make the building the new St. Elias the Prophet. (8)

In 2023 a total of 83 Iowa churches belonging to the United Methodist Church left the denomination over a split on same-six marriage and ordaining openly LGBTQ clergy. The denomination has repeatedly upheld bans on both, but others defied them. On July 1,2023 the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church approved a new vision that allowed Methodist ministers to host same-sex marriages and made way for gay clergy to serve without fear of church charges.

Conservatives then launched a new Global Methodist Church where they were determined to maintain and enforce the bans. Across the United States, 3,755 churches left the denomination including the 83 in Iowa. The Iowa conference then voted to allow the 83 church with 11% of the state's total Methodists to split off and join the new denomination or become independent. In the Pictured Rock District, including Dubuque, the churches splitting off included CENTER GROVE METHODIST CHURCH, Grandview Methodist Church and ROCKDALE CHURCH and the "United" portion of the names was removed. (9)

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Source:

1. "New Grandview Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church," Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal, December 9, 1928, p. 41

2. Ibid.

3. "Hot Music in a Dubuque Church," Dubuque Daily Herald, January 24, 1894, p. 4

4. London, Michelle, "Ecumenical Stewards," Telegraph Herald, May 7, 2022, p. 7A

5. "Grandview United Methodist Church," 365INK Magazine, February 23, March 8, 2017, p. 17

6. Hogstrom, Erik, "Church Neighbors OK With Plan," Telegraph Herald, April 7, 2004, p. 1

7. "Aesthetics Brought Keating's Men's Clothing to Grandview," Telegraph Herald, November 5, 2006, p. 1

8. Lyon, Dustin, "Entering the Promised Land," Telegraph Herald, June 24, 2017, p. 8

9. "Here are the 83 Iowa Churches Leaving the United Methodist Church over the LBGTQ Disagreements," Des Moines Register, May 24, 2023

   and Rev. Melissa J. Warren