GRANDVIEW AVENUE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

GRANDVIEW AVENUE UNITED 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. 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. 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. (1)

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. 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. (2)

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Source:

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

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