The date “1872” on the cornerstone of the Main Street church building is thought to be the year Grace Church became a formal organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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By 1910, during the pastorate of William T. Gover, the leadership at Grace Church saw the need for a larger, more modern building to meet the future needs of the congregation. With this in mind, a lot was purchased at the corner of Main and Church streets. For some years prior, the lot had been used as a public hitching lot for horses.

Local historians also say this lot was once the site of Foote’s General Store. Church Street was originally named North Street, and at the time Manassas was incorporated in 1873 it was the northern boundary of the approximately one-half mile square territory.

This lot on Main Street was purchased from John R. and Elizabeth Hornbaker for $1,500. The deed for this property is dated March 1, 1911; the terms were $400 cash and the balance secured by two interest bearing notes, one of $500 and another of $600. The Woman’s Home Missionary Society raised $150 toward the first payment of $200. Church trustees at the time were William Wheeler, C.E. Nash, E. Wood Weir, E.M. Good, and M.J. Bushong. Reverend DeLong states:

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In 1913, Manassas was designated part of the Alexandria Methodist District. Grace Church was moving forward and growing. In the February 19, 1917, Quarterly Conference, Reverend Edward A. Roads said “Our finances are in better shape than at any time since I have been pastor…. As to plan., for future I would say that we must have a better place of worship.” Within a few months thirty-one more people joined Grace Church, making need for space even more pressing. A special conference was called that summer by Grace’s new pastor, H.Q. Burr, and Presiding Elder B.W. Bond for consideration of the advisability of buying the Methodist Episcopal Church, North property in Manassas.

A 1912 effort to merge with Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, North had failed. Now five years later Asbury, unable to pay its bills, was being forced by court action to sell. Brother Burr was appointed “to wait on the Dist. Supt. of the M.E. Church, [North] with an offer of $1500 ” Reverend Burr wrote the proposal to Dr. J.R. Edwards, Presiding Elder of the Asbury Church. On August 27, 1917, Reverend Burr met with Dr. Edwards and Asbury members. The Asbury Quarterly Conference Record says that one of the Asbury trustees thought “as they had made a business proposition after U[nited] B[rethren] made an offer that it was not fair to them [United Brethren] to consider another offer.” Dr. Edwards insisted that the Asbury Quarterly Conference at least listen to Reverend Burr, “as the M.E. Church, [South] would say we had never given a fair show in the matter.” Reverend Burr made the offer of $1,500, but “was informed by trustees that M.E. [Asbury] Church had never offered property for sale … to the highest bidder.”

The vote was taken by ballot: 27 votes for; none against transfer of property, including the church and parsonage, to United Brethren Church for $1,000. Asbury closed in 1917 and its membership scattered. Only a few are known to have joined Grace Church.

Details from entries in the records of the first three decades of the twentieth century show a firm decision to build a new church.

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In 1923 the movement to erect the Grace Church building on the Main Street property was started during the pastorate of Robert L. Eutsler. Reverend Eutsler would go to the Battle Street home of architect Albert Speiden and sit at the kitchen table to discuss the plans. In 1923, the plans were presented by Mr. Speiden, whose offices were in the District of Columbia. During the 1920’s Mr. Speiden was architect of or had helped with planning alterations of all the churches in town. He was the father of Virginia Carper, a long-time piano teacher associated with many church members. Mrs. Carper remembers her father came home from work one day to see that a checkerboard roof had been put on the new church. He was too upset to eat supper, because this was not what he had specified and felt it detracted from the beauty of the structure.

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Ground was broken for the Main Street church on June 5, 1926. Mrs. Phoebe Wood was the member honored to take out the ceremonial first shovel of dirt. Mr. B.C. Cornwell, a member of the Board of Stewards, was in ,charge of the construction work and building fund. Mr.J. H. Steele, another steward, was treasurer of the building fund. The church membership by this time was about 400.

The cornerstone was laid in November 1926, with Presiding Elder Dr. H.P. Hamill, and Reverend W.G. Hammond, pastor of Grace Church 190 1901- as the main speakers of the occasion. (See page 276 for a partial list of members.)

In June of 1928, $1,850 was raised as an Easter offering for the new church. The basement and main auditorium were completed, and the outer shell of the building was finished in 1929 during the pastorate of Reverend George Hasel, the work having been slowed by the difficulty of raising funds for the project.

The total cost of the building thus far was $31,915.16, of which the Ladies Aid Society had raised $11,201.12. In those days a popular saying made the rounds to the effect that “this building was built on pies and cakes,” as much of the money the Ladies Aid Society contributed was from the numerous bake sales and bazaars they held for fund raising.

On July 30, 1929, the building on Zebedee Street[NOTE: at corner of Zebedee and Center streets]was sold. The sale price was $2,000 with $1,000 cash and a deed of trust on the balance at six percent interest not to exceed two years.

The Zebedee building still stands, but the steeple has been removed; an addition has been built on, so it bears little resemblance to the way it looked when it was used as a church building. Only two items are known to survive from this original building: one being the beautiful pulpit which was used in the Main Street sanctuary, and the other being the bell, with its tolling device, which was removed from the Zebedee church steeple and installed in the Main Street belfry while it was under construction.

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Early in the 1900’s, Manassas became well known for its churches. In 1930 Ripley’s Believe It or Not named Manassas as the town with the highest ratio of churches to population, and at the 1933 World’s Fair Manassas was recognized as “the town of churches.”

Soon after the sale of the Zebedee building in 1929, the Grace Methodist congregation moved into the newest of these Manassas churches, the brick structure on the corner of Main and Church Streets. After the superstructure was up, the congregation met in the basement for services, Sunday School and dinners. Mrs. R.S. Hynson headed the Ladies Aid Society and supervised the dinners, bazaars and money-making activities. High school girls were recruited to set tables and serve the Kiwanis Club once a month. There was no “goofing off.” The table had to be set and the serving had to be done according to Emily Post.

Interior work on the upper floors was incomplete for lack of funds. In a wet season, one walked on planks from the basement door to rows of wooden chairs. The stairs, sometimes referred to as “Mr. Speiden’s Nightmare,” were as treacherous then as later. Marie Barrett tells of arriving as a bride and falling into Grace’s basement sanctuary. This multi-purpose room was furnished with pulpit, pews, chairs and other items from the Zebedee church.  Even the wood-stoves from the old church were used temporarily.

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In 1946 the indebtedness on the Main Street building was finally paid off.  On Sunday, May 5, 1946, just one month shy of twenty years since the ground-breaking, the Main Street Grace Methodist Church was finally dedicated.

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During 1954-55, 100 additional seats were installed in the balcony of the Main Street church.

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In 1957 an education building containing eighteen rooms was completed. Adjoining property necessary for this expansion had been purchased on May 4, 1953, from Mrs. Thomas C. Price for $22,000. This property was originally Bushong’s grocery store on Main Street. A small one-story building just behind it housed a public library. It was necessary to remove this smaller structure to make room for the new education building, but the building facing Main Street remains today and is still rented out by Grace Church.

Leonard R. Putnam was treasurer of the building fund for the education wing. A successful fund raising campaign was chaired by M.S. Burchard and a total of $64,000 was pledged. On September 17, 1955, ground-breaking services were conducted by Reverend Lee 0. Mortzfeldt. Mrs. Roy Blakemore and Mrs. Ewell Evans (affectionately known by young and old alike as “Aunt Pearl”) shared the honor of taking out the first shovels of dirt. During the excavation work for this addition a large field oven of the Civil War era was found on the site.  It was not determined whether it was built by northern or southern forces.  The final cost of this addition was about $95,000.  The building was first occupied on Sunday, May 5, 1957.

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In September of 1965 the Long Range Planning Committee urged the Board to relocate.  The membership had now reached 1,000.  The Sunday School consisted of 20 classes but had only 17 classrooms.

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In 1970 the sanctuary was equipped with air conditioning.

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Since Grace opened its doors on Main Street in 1929 an education wing had been added, but by 1970 space was again a problem. Grace was looking for more property, so a merger proposal in 1971 by Manassas United Methodist Church was an exciting prospect. Their location on Sudley Road and Grant Avenue was a very desirable site.

Manassas United Methodist Church has an interesting history which has touched Grace’s history tangentially throughout the years. In 1918, the Manassas United Brethren Church purchased the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, North on Church Street. (The same site Grace tried to purchase in 1917.) They occupied this building until 1942 when it was moved to provide a right of way for Church Street, which was being extended to Grant Avenue. A new building was built for this congregation on the south side of Church Street, near the site of the original building. The Brethren occupied this building until 1964 when they relocated to Sudley Road and Grant Avenue in the city.

With the merger of the Methodist and Brethren churches in 1968, this became the Manassas United Methodist Church (MUMC). Their new building was expensive, and the church met with financial difficulty. The 1971 merger proposal would have helped solve the financial problem for MUMC and would also have provided a needed relocation for Grace Church. However, as it turned out, the proposal was defeated by the Manassas United Methodist Church, and no vote was required by Grace. MUMC did merge in the 1980’s with another local church, St. Thomas United Methodist, to form Manassas/St. Thomas United Methodist Church. This thriving church has built a large new building at the Sudley Road and Grant Avenue location.

After the defeat of the MUMC merger proposal, Grace’s Administrative Board decided to poll the congregation: should Grace Church look for other locations, or develop the existing facility? This engendered extensive discussion, inquiry, planning, and consultation with architects, and in 1963 a 6.8 acre lot located on Weems Road in north Manassas was purchased from I.J. Breeden as a possible relocation site for Grace Church. The cost of this lot was $22,710.40. In spite of this purchase, no other action was taken until 1988 when another handsome offer of land came to the church.

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By May 1974 the Sunday School classroom space had become so overcrowded the Administrative Board began investigating the possibility of leasing space on a temporary basis in nearby buildings for additional Sunday School classrooms. No space was leased, however, and the problem was alleviated by partitioning off part of the fellowship hall to provide three classrooms on the Church Street side of the basement. For a time before the educational building was built in 1957, it had been necessary to hold some Sunday School classes in the theater building across the street from the church. Another class was held near the church, in a small building owned by the late Arthur Pence. These spaces were provided without cost to the church.

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An extensive renovation of the church’s physical plant was completed in 1977 under the leadership of William M. Johnson. The sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen, and offices were completely remodeled, the electrical system updated, the exterior of the building refurbished and the entire building repainted. On September 18 a renovation celebration service of dedication was held. Guest speaker for this occasion was Dr. R. Kern Eutsler, superintendent of the Alexandria District, whose father, Reverend R.L. Eutsler, had led the church in the move to the Main Street location in 1926.

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Shortly after the renovation, the beautiful stained glass windows in the sanctuary and the windows in the fellowship hall were sealed and covered with special plastic to protect them from the elements and vandalism and to provide better security for the building.

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Just after midnight on February 2, 1981, only six months after the Sousa pipe organ had been rebuilt, and four years after the 1977 renovation, a passing state police trooper spotted a fire. Grace Church was ablaze. He turned in the alarm about 12:30 a.m. The quick response of the Manassas Volunteer Fire Department prevented the fire from spreading, but considerable fire damage had already been done to the fellowship hall, kitchen, Church Street entrance, lower hall, and the chancel area. All of the building suffered heavy smoke damage. Fortunately, the fire doors in the education building closed automatically and this helped to reduce the fire and smoke damage to that part of the building. The fire was thought to have started in the lower hall near the Church Street entrance.

Although the fire burned through the floor in the chancel area, there was no damage to the painting of the “Last Supper” which was protected by drapes, and only superficial damage to the pulpit and chancel furniture. The Sousa organ, however, did not fare so well. It was heavily damaged to the extent of $20,000 which fortunately was covered by insurance.

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The basement floor standing several inches deep with water, the shattered glass and twisted metal, the stifling odor of burned carpet, wood and books gave me a feeling of being as close to Hell as I cared to be.

The losses were bad but could have been much worse. The firemen at one point felt their job was done. The fire was out, but a young fireman who seemed to have a sixth sense about fire insisted there was still fire somewhere in the building. It was discovered the fire had followed behind that metal ceiling and emerged at the Altar in the Sanctuary. [It was not discovered until later that the Sousa organ had suffered extensive damage.]

God was with us in the flames though his presence was hard for his people to feel on that February 3, 1981,

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Total cost of the fire damage amounted to $250,846.26, of which  insurance paid $232,962.64. The cause of the fire was never discovered.
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The Main Street church was to suffer yet another setback on February 22, 1996.  A fire originating in an electrical switch box in the pastor’s study destroyed several rooms in the education wing and caused smoke damage throughout the building. Coincidentally, restoration costs were $232,000-almost the same as for the earlier fire. The event received national news coverage, when television crews in town for a criminal trial were rousted out of a nearby motel at 7:00 a.m. by clanging fire bells.
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On Sunday, September 11, 1994, 9:00 a.m. the final [Methodist] service was held at the Main Street Grace Memorial Church.