St. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1857)
St. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1857)
St. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church (ca. 1857)
Up until the mid 1900's, much of mid and southern Delaware (Kent and Sussex Counties) was largely rural. The majority of the population living on farms or in small towns or villages.
To serve the needs of people in these areas, as well as to bridge distance gaps, one of the first things community leaders did was to organize a church. Churches not only addressed the religious needs of the community but also social, political, economic and educational needs, serving as schoolhouses, town halls, courtrooms, forums for candidate stump speeches and polling places.
It was common in rural communities for parishioners to donate the land and building material needed to construct and furnish their community church. According to Sussex County land records, the property upon which St. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church was originally constructed was donated by local farmer Levin Hopkins. The property was located in a heavily wooded area near present day, Shortly, Delaware. The church was originally constructed in 1857 and rebuilt in 1892, 1906, and 1914. Services were discontinued in the 1920's and thereafter the church was only used for the annual homecoming event and other special services.
St. Thomas Methodist Episcopal Church is a beautiful representation of the mid-19th century rural church architecture found on the Delmarva Peninsula. Design elements include a steeply pitched roof, arched windows and intermittent use of stained glass. At its original location, there was a small cemetery on the east and west sides of the building. The pews, chairs, pulpit and cast-iron stoves inside the church are original. The two chandeliers were donated around the time the church was moved to the Ag Museum (1994) as were the front doors, which have a story of their own. The doors on St. Thomas Church originally graced the entrance of Conley’s Chapel (ca. 1838) near Angola, Delaware. Restoration work on Conley’s Chapel caused the doors to be removed sometime in the late 1970’s. Rather than see them sent to the local dump, Mrs. Iilda (Sylvester) Bookhammer retrieved them and stored them in her family barn. Later, upon learning that the newly relocated St. Thomas Church had a mismatched set of “temporary” doors, Mrs. Bookhammer donated the Conley’s Chapel doors for use on St. Thomas Church at the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village. Read more....
