Architectural History of The First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto

By Toby Williams

This architecture exemplifies what should be true of the life of every Christian:

that it is founded on the heritage of the past

but takes always new forms relevant to the present age.

Robert Lee Stuart

First Methodist Church was established in Palo Alto in 1894, the year the city was incorporated. Land, encompassing most of the current site at Hamilton Avenue and Webster Street, had been donated and money had been pledged for construction of a church building. During the planning and construction period, the 24 charter members of the church met for Sunday services in Nortree Hall, a meeting room over a store on University Avenue. By the time the picturesque redwood church was completed two years later, membership had grown to 58.

Within the next 15 years, the membership flourished and outgrew the original redwood church. The congregation built an esthetically pleasing traditional style white stucco house of worship, dedicated in 1914, on the site of the redwood church, which had been moved to the other side of Webster for use as a temporary meeting house during construction. The stucco church building was enlarged and remodeled, a new parsonage in 1948, major remodeling in 1949, and a new education building and fellowship hall in 1952 (designed by Carlton Arthur Steiner, architect of the present church building, and remodeled in 2000).

But in 1957, the congregation recognized the need for a newer, larger house of worship. At this time, they also made a commitment to remain on the same site and to build a major downtown church, rather than move to another area of Palo Alto where land was less expensive.

Dreams to Reality

The next four years comprised a massive planning effort by the committees of church members lead by Dr. (later Bishop) R. Marvin Stuart and aided by professional consultants. They grappled with the issue of probable needs of the church in coming decades, and they were committed to creating a nontraditional and architecturally spectacular house of worship that would inspire greater participation by the congregation. In addition, they wanted the new church to be a place where the community could meet for musical and cultural events.

During this period, Carlton Arthur Steiner of Berkeley was selected to be architect of this challenging project. The building site included the area covered by the old church building and one additional lot acquired on Webster Street. Finally the plans were drawn and approved and construction on the 1,050-person capacity "Contemporary Gothic" building began. General contractor was Theo G. Meyer and Sons of San Francisco.

The construction process took two years, ending with consecration in 1963. During construction, the congregation held services in the Varsity Theatre (now Borders Books). After completion, the Palo Alto Times (10/31/64) stated that the new church was "often called the most spectacular church on the Midpeninsula."