KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Knoxville church will celebrate its bicentennial anniversary this Sunday, Sept. 21. Not too many local churches have had 200 years of continuous membership.
While the church buildings at Fountain City United Methodist have changed, the mission has stayed the same.
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Singing has been a part of worship at Fountain City United Methodist Church for 200 years. Since 1825, members have been filling the pews as their voices have been filling the air.
The first building was a one-room log cabin when the church was known as Fountain Head Methodist. The church was built where Church Street and Fountain Road are now located. That was just above this present-day spring house at what is now Fountain City Lake, which many people refer to as the Duck Pond.
“Of course, there was no lake here. This was just a swamp. And, this was the northern part of John Adair’s Revolutionary Land Grant,” said Reverend Jim Dougherty, Church Historian…