(Grace United Methodist Church was nominated for the Kansas and National Registers of Historic Sites, Nov. 19, 2005. The following is taken from the application for nomination.)

Grace United Methodist Church claims the distinction of being the second oldest Methodist church in Wichita. Grace was the first offspring of the First Methodist Episcopal Church on North Broadway. It was originally called the Emporia Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church and was located at the southwest corner of Dewey and South Emporia Avenue. This first church building was erected at a cost of $5,412 and was dedicated on June 27, 1886. However, the first worship service of the congregation of the Emporia Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church was held on January 15, 1886.

The young church continued to grow and, in 1910, the need for more room led the Trustees to dispose of the old property and purchase the present site of the church at Topeka and Gilbert. They purchased four additonal lots in 1909 for $5,500.

The cornerstone of the building is Carthage Limestone, quarried at Carthage, Missouri and was laid in place at 2:20 p.m. on the afternoon of December 26, 1910 by S.B. Kernan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.¹ The stone is crystalline white limestone of superior durability and matchless beauty. For building purposes, either rough or dressed, it has no equal and it is specially adapted for trimmings, pavements and monuments.² Stone was quarried at Carthage, Missouri by hand for many years prior to the installation of quarrying machinery, which was introduced in about 1885 for the production of exterior building stone.³

This church was completed five years after construction began and was dedicated on September 15, 1915.⁴ It has a unique single pipe steam heating system, originally coal fired and later converted to natural gas, wherein the steam goes to the heaters in the top half of the pipe and the condensed water returns to the boiler by way of the bottom half of the same pipe. On March 8, 1916, the newly completed Grace Church was honored by playing host to the 34th Annual Southwest Kansas (Methodist) Conference.

On June 20, 1929, members of the congregation of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church gathered to witness the burning of the mortgage incurred when the church building was completed. G.E. Meeker held the mortgage document, which was ignited by S. B. Kernan, one of the original members of the church.⁵ S. B. Kernan, a life-long member, was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Grace Church at the time of the building's construction. He also served twenty years as a Sedgwick County Commissioner. Kernan was born on May 26, 1851 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and became a resident of Sedgwick County in 1883. He served as a member of the board of Education for two years, three years as Treasurer for the City of Wichita, and four years on the City Council. At the time of his death, Kernan lived at 902 South Topeka on the same block as Grace Methodist Church.⁶

During the construction process, when the building was ready for the outside brick veneer, there was a little question as to the color of brick to be used. All the trustees with the exception of S. B. Kernan⁷, chairman, were in favor of a light colored brick. Mr. Kernan wanted a cherry red, but was in the minority. As it happened, when the light colored bricks were priced it was found that the church could not afford them, so they had to accept the cherry red.

Methodism has not always remained united. The Methodist Protestant Church was formed in 1830 primarily as a movement for more adequate lay representation. Slavery later caused the Church to divide between south and north. It was not until 1939 that the three branches of Methodism again became one Church. On April 23, 1968, in Dallas, Texas, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, founded by William Otterbein, Jacob Albright and Martin Boehm, became the United Methodist Church.

A name change, from Emporia Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church to Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, was filed with the State of Kansas on April 3, 1912. The name was changed on April 4, 1954 to Grace Methodist Church and again on April 20, 1969 to Grace United Methodist Church.

Grace United Methodist Church has the distinction of having one of the oldest Scout Troops, continually sponsored by the same institution, in the City of Wichita. It was first organized as Troop 21 in 1925 and now carries the designation of Troop 621⁸.

In 1927, the female members of the congregation devised a plan to raise money for the building fund by starting Wichita's strangest musical organization. Known as the "Kitchen Orchestra," this musical group played on instruments made out of kitchen utensils. Each member of the orchestra had to produce her own instrument. And wonderful ingenuity was displayed in making instruments from kitchen utensils which not only looked like the article they represented, but also made a real noise. A bass drum made from a wash boiler, a banjo made from a sauce pan, a harp made from a broom, a bass viola made from a market basket, horns made with funnels for the bell, a saxophone made from a coffee-percolator, and a conductor's table made from a washboard are among the strange and wonderful musical instruments. The first public concert, held on September 27, 1927 was an instantaneous success, the $145 deficit wiped out in one fell swoop. Twenty-six old-time songs were played on the instruments and invitations began to pour in. Future performing engagements were booked.⁹ The performances continued through the mid-1980s and the modern "Kitchen Orchestra" was again featured in the Wichita Eagle on March 31, 1981.¹⁰

Grace United Methodist Church continues to be a viable church with a thriving congregation in the old center city portion of Wichita, Kansas, carrying on its ministry as it has since  it located on this property in 1910. It reaches out to the people of the church and the neighborhood through worship, Sunday school, Youth Group, United Methodist Women, United Methodist Men, Choir, Boy Scouts, Jammers, Thespians, Neighborhood Meals, Golden Chain and other initiatives. It is the goal of these groups and this congregation to continue to maintain the church's historic features for future generations, preserving the building's outstanding architectural integrity.

The Church Organ

The M.P. Moller Company constructed the organ for Grace United Methodist Church in 1921.¹¹ Opus 3213 is the number of the organ.. That designation indicates the number, sequentially, of' the organs that Moller had built up to that point in time. No two organs are alike and this opus number is on every single pipe and piece of this organ to keep it separate from all other organs in production at the time of manufacture.

Mathias P. Moller built his first pipe organ manufacturing shop in April 1881 in Hagerstown, Maryland. This factory was destroyed by fire in 1895. In January, 1896, a new factory was completed. Thirty-three years after building his first organ, Moller built his one thousandth. The second thousand organs were built in only seven years, the third thousand in five years. Moller averaged one organ per day through the entire decade of the 1920s. M.P. Moller, Inc. still continues the production of quality pipe organs today.

The organ in Grace United Methodist Church was purchased in 1922 at a cost of $5,450 by donation from Mrs. J.E. Croxton in memory of her husband, the former Treasurer of the Church. The first organist was Mrs. Ivan (May) Streed. Unique aspects of this organ are that the original wind chests and a number of original sets (ranks) or pipes are still playing. Of the 996 original pipes, 628 have been replaced through maintenance on the organ. The console was replaced in 1952 at a cost of $2,500. In 1983, the M.P. Moller Company provided Grace United Methodist Church with the original blueprints for the Opus 3213 to assist with restoration work being done on the organ. The. total cost to renovate the organ, returning it to its original splendor, was $45,000.¹²