History

Methodists have been meeting at the “four corners” of Dryden since 1831. As early as 1816, the Rev. Alvin Torrey preached Methodism in Dryden, initially in homes and then at the local school house. Eventually, various local Methodist groups formed a circuit of churches and appointed Rev. Jesse Peck in 1831. The original church building was built by 1832 by Henry H. Moore of Ithaca.

While repairs were being done in 1873, the original church building burned to the ground. In 1874, church members and the larger community of Dryden devised a plan for rebuilding the structure. During construction, it was realized that the cost was too high to complete the upper story, so Bishop Peck was called in to help with fundraising and by the end of his visit in 1876 they had raised enough to complete the building. (Many years later, in the mid-1990’s, an education wing was added to the structure.)

This historic building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. According to the National Archives Catalog, “The church is architecturally significant as a rare intact example of a Romanesque Revival style church executed in wood.”

The Methodist denomination has seen more than one change since its inception in the 1700’s. Initially established in the United States as the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in 1784, two groups broke away to become the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They then reunited with the MEC in 1938 to become the Methodist Church. Then, in 1968, the Methodist Church and Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to become the United Methodist Church.

Today, the Dryden United Methodist Church is part of the Finger Lakes District of the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church.