History
Wesley Chapel was the original house of worship. Built by a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, it was the first Methodist church to serve South Madison County during the late nineteenth century. Through a series of mergers and name changes in the ensuing years, that Methodist Episcopal Church South evolved into First United Methodist Church of Ridgeland.
The Chapel was first built on a site near today’s intersection of County Line Road and Old Canton Road. Then in 1901, Wesley Chapel was dismantled, each board being numbered, and moved to the heart of the original Highland Colony development in the new Village of Ridgeland. Rev. J. G. Moore, the first pastor, was paid a sum of $100 to reassemble the structure on the present campus.
In 1952, the building now serving our children and youth was constructed as an educational building. It included a kitchen and fellowship area. The wood framed Chapel served as the primary worship facility until 1960 when our current sanctuary was built to serve the growing church in a growing community.
In 1991 a new Fellowship Hall was built to strengthen the church’s outreach and service in our community. It houses our three adult Sunday school classes, a fine kitchen, a small library, and a beautiful hall with a glass wall that opens onto a tree-shaded porch.
