1842; 1890; 1923 additions, Frederick A. Bishop. 22 E. Washington St.
Now one of the city's most arresting sights, this church began as a standard classical stuccoed brick church with a recessed porch. Its four-columned Greek Doric portico was added in 1890. In 1923, the church was expanded with two flanking temples with their own Doric porticoes and linked to the raised central temple with short colonnaded hyphens to create a unique multipart Doric church. The church's history is as dramatic as its architecture. Arising from the Methodists' schism over abolition, the first General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was held here in 1846. For years afterwards, Washington Street was considered the leading church of its denomination in Virginia.