GUMC was originally organized in the 1870s as the
Gainesville Methodist Episcopal Church, South and was part of the Sudley
Mission of the Washington District, Baltimore Conference. In 1881, the church's
earliest members transferred from Buckland Church to Gainesville. In these
early days, church ministers lived in a parsonage built on land that was
conveyed to the church on November 16, 1883, by Mr. Lorenzo J. Prescott for
$800 cash.
On August 18, 1883, Miss Somerville Gaines, an original
member of the congregation (whose family gave the community its name), conveyed
one acre of land upon which the church was built. This acre adjoined the
historic Gaines Cemetery. Adjoining this family cemetery, the church
established its own cemetery which to this day is the final resting place for
many members of the church. The first stone for the new church was laid in
1884. The building remained unfinished and incomplete in its interior for several
years. Finally on October 10, 1886, the completed building was dedicated.
Since then, the church and is members have experienced many
different "firsts", events, and milestones. In 1954, it was
determined that a new parsonage was needed to replace the one built in 1883 and
1884. A new parsonage was built by members of the church as a labor of love on
a site in an area known than as Lake View Estate, a new addition to
Gainesville. Today, the church's pastor lives in his own home. In 1961, with
the help of the Northern Virginia Board of Missions, five more acres of the
Gaines estate adjoining the church were acquired. Other events of interest are:
1964, the first church paper was published under the name, "The
Gleamer"; 1972, A Gainesville-Bethel merger took place in June; and in
1982 and 1983, the church building received updated electrical wiring and white
siding was added to the Sunday School Wing. A well was also dug and the sewer
hooked up.
Over its long and storied history, the church has had 49
different pastors with our current lead pastor, Rev. John Patterson, coming to
Gainesville in 1997. With his arrival, the GUMC embarked on its most
significant physical, operational, and spiritual changes since its beginning in
1884.