One of the first preachers traveling to this area was Bishop Asbury himself who would often stay in the Cox home. The Bishop noted in his journal that he stayed there in 1788 on his way to Keywood (near Emory, VA) where the first Methodist conference west of the Alleghenies was held. He and Cox remained lifelong friends. In 1960 the Methodist General Conference designated this house as a shrine of Methodism in the United States. The house remains in an excellent state of preservation. In the early days the region was neither a conference nor a circuit. Preachers were simply sent “to Holston.” For eighty years Methodism flourished in this manner.

Bristol, Tennessee was incorporated on February 22, 1856, and Goodson, Virginia was incorporated the next month on March 5. The area was beginning to develop rapidly with the building of the railroad.

It was during the Jonesborough conference of 1855 that Bishop Paine “admitted into the Abingdon District, in the Holston Conference, on trial, George W. Miles.” A group of nine men (William F. Butler, Jessee Aydelott, John Fleming, John Moore, Daniel W. Crumley, William W. James, Fleming Crumley, Williams H. Snodgrass, and Hardy Pool) were appointed trustees by the Reverend Miles to secure property for a house of worship in Bristol. In 1855 they purchased a lot from Col. S.E. Goodson for $1.00. This would become the first site of a Methodist church in Bristol, and was located at the northeast corner of the present intersection of Lee and Scott Streets.

In 1856 the home of Jesse Aydelott (southeast corner of Scott and Moore Streets) was designated as a ‘preaching place’ while the church was being built, thus the first formal meetings of the congregation. The first Methodist church was completed in 1858. In Oct, 1864 it was the host for the first Holston Methodist Conference.

When the new church was completed the African-American members of the church formed their own congregation and established the John Wesley Methodist Church in the original church building on Scott and Lee Streets. The Main Street building was demolished in 1902. The church was renamed State Street Methodist Church.

By 1950 the congregation was once again needing a larger facility. A nine-acre tract of land was purchased in the Spring Garden area of Bristol, Virginia for $43,000. The property had served as the home of the president of Sullins College and was destined to become the parsonage. On September 27, 1953 the ground-breaking ceremony was held. The structure was built in three sections: the main sanctuary/narthex/fellowship hall, the educational wing, and the chapel. On Sunday, May 6th, 1956, the congregation celebrated 100 years of Methodist worship in Bristol in their new sanctuary. This building continues to serve the congregation well.

To know more about the beliefs of the United Methodist Church, visit http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe.