Within weeks of Bishop Charles B. Galloway’s death in 1909, First Methodist’s Board of Stewards appealed to Mississippi’s large Methodist population for a memorial church that would serve as a lasting monument to the state’s beloved bishop. Hunt designed a bold classical temple in tan brick for this corner site that this Methodist congregation has occupied since 1836. Set on a raised base, eight monumental Tuscan columns with egg-and-dart enrichment support the mo-dillioned pediment and create a shallow entrance porch reached by a grand staircase.
A porticoed chapel by N. W. Overstreet and Associates was added to the north side in 1953. The family life center (1996) to the rear is connected to the former First Baptist Church (1844; 300 Yazoo Street), owned by the Methodists since the nineteenth century. The heavy Greek Revival classicism of this temple-front church contrasts with Hunt’s more ornate design. The International Style Methodist Building (1957; 321 Mississippi Street), with its glazed lobby, housed the offices of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church until 2014.
Opposite the church at 304 N. Congress, the two-story clapboard Bishop Galloway House (1889, William Stanton) was a gift from the denomination to its new bishop. The Jackson construction firm of H. M. Taylor and its superintendent W. J. McGee built the house, an eclectic mix of Eastlake, Second Empire, and Queen Anne styles, with a mansard-roofed tower and wraparound porch. This porch hosted a reception for President Theodore Roosevelt during his November 1902 hunting trip to Mississippi. The house was converted to a law office in 1983 by Bennett and Timmer Architects of Jackson.