Central Park M.E. Church (formerly Market Street M.E. Church)

Organized by the first Methodist missionaries to the region, this congregation began meeting in the home of Mr. Jackson on 5th Street between Robert and Jackson and later moved to the Central Hotel on Bench Street (later 2nd Street and now Kellogg Boulevard).  The congregation erected a brick church on Market Street across from Rice Park and was officially organized on December 31, 1848.  This building was used by many subsequent congregations. The Central Park congregation moved to a new church it erected at 9th and Jackson Streets in 1859 and was renamed the Jackson Street M.E. Church. At this time some of the Market Street members refused to leave the original church. This group eventually moved up the hill to Portland and Victoria and renamed itself the First Methodist Episcopal congregation.  The Jackson Street congregation, meanwhile, moved again to another new church, called Central Park M.E., at the corner of 12th and Minnesota Streets in 1887. This landmark stone church, designed by architect George Wirth, featured a tower and steeple 165 feet high. Atop the steeple was a lighted cross, one of the first electrical outdoor lights in the region.  The building was partially destroyed by fire in 1940 but rebuilt.  It was razed in 1961 for the Interstate highway project. The congregation remained downtown, building at 14th and Jackson. 

This congregation sponsored a number of missions in the region, which became congregations in their own right, including the Newport Church, in 1847, St. Paul's Church (formerly King Street Mission), and the Epworth Mission (later a Seventh-Day Adventist Church), and Merriam Park Mission (later Trinity Church).