First United Methodist Church

Although this Methodist congregation dates back to 1859, they met in various places, including the nearby Baptist Church, until their first church building was constructed in 1883. By 1899 they had outgrown the small wooden structure and tore it down to build a brick church on the same site. In 1916 they began planning for a larger facility diagonally across the street intersection, but World War I delayed the project until 1919, when Little Rock architect Almand began his design. Almand, who became well known for his church designs, especially Methodist churches, employed a severe Greek Revival design here. A deep full-width portico fronted by six Doric columns and a pediment is preceded by a tall flight of stairs, leading churchgoers up to the second-floor auditorium. Almand included a large dome for the church in his initial design, but it was never built. The church is constructed of white limestone quarried in Batesville. Inside, stained glass windows are less the focus of the interior than the stained gumwood woodwork of the sanctuary and the wood-beamed ceiling. In the 1960s an education building and a chapel were built to the south, and in the 1980s a multipurpose family life center was added at the end of the block. In 2014, a street was removed, and the family life center was expanded to Wesley Hall, a much larger worship center.