Government Str Methodist Church

By Jere Hough Meteorologist / Feature Reporter

Published: Tue, April 01, 2008 - 4:08 pm
Last Updated: Wed, April 02, 2008 - 12:03 pm

Jere Hough

It's a face you can't forget...the front of Government Street United Methodist Church in Mobile. Lavishly decorated with Christian symbols, right where Broad Street intersects Government, the church is a kind of gateway to downtown Mobile. Built around 1890, it has survived major hurricances...and even a lightning strike that left a scar on the eave above the front door.
Inside some of the organ pipes go back to the early 1900s. Eleven-year-oldTripp Gulledge, the Pastor's son is showing they still sound pretty good. But your eyes are drawn upward to the beautiful windows.
Pastor Rob Gulledge points out, "The stained glass windows here at the Governement Street Church are a National Treasure."
They were installed during a major remodeling, finished in 1917.
Gulledge explains how they have survived all the storms. "Above the stained glass cornea in the dome, there happens to be skylight that protects it...kind of a large greenhouse."
Gulledge says the Sanctuary will hold over 400 adults and displays its long past well. Behind the Sanctuary was the Great Hall...a huge room once the social center of the Church...ornately decorated with intricate bas relief molding that still shows. But walls were added to make Sunday School rooms. And the pinnacle of the great hall, a domed ceiling with huge skylight, can't be seen anymore from below since a second floor was created between the high ceiling and ground floor.
"This Congregation is in fact the Mother of Methodism on the Central Gulf Coast, says Gulledge, "the St. Francis Stree Congregation, State Street, Little Zion, now known as Big Zion, AME Zion, and many other congregations throughout the City."
While the Church's attendance did drop through the 1990s, in the last few years Gulledge says Sunday attendance is way up.