And the Church Goes on

And the Church Goes on. Top of the Town. , Eldbrooke United Methodist Church's roots reach to about 1835, when Methodists gathered at the Loughborough Road home of Philip L. Brooke. Soon they built the simple, wooden Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church on land purchased from the Murdock family., During the Civil War (1861-1865) Union troops used the church as a guardhouse, storehouse, hospital, and mess hall. Later two Road Island regiments set up Camp Frieze around the church and along the narrow River Road westward to Fort Bayard., Some Union soldiers helped themselves to Tenleytowners' food and other goods. This irked the wealthy, slaveholding residents who sympathized with the South. Ann Forrest Green of nearby Rosedale wrote of "this detestable and unnatural war," loathing the thousands of Union troops who passed by her home "shouting and shooting" randomly. Those who used the church did so much damage that the church put up a new building in 1866., When parishioners enlarged that church in 1899, they renamed it to honor church leaders Aquila Eld and Philip L. Brooke. The large Spanish Mission style sanctuary dates from 1926. With a dwindling membership, the Methodist church closed in 2005. The City Church opened there in 2008., Take a short walk along Murdock Mill Road, to the left of the Historic Landmark church, to see the Methodist Cemetery. Behind the new iron gates are two centuries of tombstones, many carrying familiar Tenleytown names. This cemetery was open to all. Its last burial occurred in 1989, and for some years the grounds were neglected. Then in 2001 Audrey Bates Schwartz spurred the cemetery's association to restore it to park-like conditions, with help from Columbian Harmony Society.