201 Isle Royale Street
The church was reconstructed due to a fire that occurred in 1916.
The original wood-framed structure of Grace United Methodist Church was built in 1854. It began with a group by the name of the Portage Lake Class. The original building was simple - it contained one story and had no basement. However, the current building that stands today replaced the original building as membership to the church began to grow steadily in the late 1880s to early 1890s. The architect William Pryor designed the plans for the new Richardsonian Romanesque building. The original building that stood in the same place as the current building was replaced in 1892 and 1893 for the cost of $18,000.
The new Jacobsville sandstone church was constructed to be accommodating for its growth in membership. It contained a sanctuary and meeting rooms along with a new basement that housed a kitchen, Sunday school room, and a boiler room. The exterior displays beautiful stained-glass windows and two entrances into the church, one via an exterior staircase.
Disaster struck Grace United Methodist Church on November 24, 1916, when a fire raged inside the building, destroying the interior. The reconstruction due to the damage lasted from 1916 to 1928, due to limited funds, and was designed by the Maass Brothers, the architects employed. Fortunately, the impressive stained-glass window remained a feature of the church. The brothers reconstructed the church design to include a safer design in the event of a fire. They designed for the church to have a rectangular path, extended the building toward the rear, and removed the stairs to one of the exterior entrances.
Since the reconstruction, additional construction has been done on the church. The first of this took place from 1969 to 1971, in which a fire escape was added to the exterior along with a cry room for those with young children to the back of the sanctuary. A handicapped entrance was additionally installed in 1979. The most recent construction, contracted by Thomas Moyle, added an addition to the church, expanding the sanctuary to the south. This construction was done for $650,000 and was completed on June 30, 1991.
Sources: Grace United Methodist Church; Image: University Archives and Historical Collections