The First Methodist Church

The First Methodist Church. Warren Historic Site. , This truly magnificent building has been a light in both the spiritual and navigational life of Warren., The first Methodist sermon ever preached in Warren was by Rev. Daniel Smith in 1789. The Rev. Jesse Lee, noted pioneer of Methodism, preached sermons in homes of 1790 and 1791. A group of a dozen members under the charge of Rev. Ezekiel Cooper organized a church in the fall of 1792. The first church edifice was erected in 1794 and ws the first Methodist Church in Rhode Island and the second in New England. In the following decades the church was enlarged several times and by the early 1840s congregational growth required the construction of a new church., The existing structure, completed in 1845, was designed by Fall River architect Perez Mason and built by the Warren firm of Hoar and Mason. The building is a fine vernacular Greek Revival church, with a portico featuring massive fluted Doric columns supporting a full pediment and a prominent five-stage steeple., 1778 , British Raid on Warren , In March 1778, General George Washington ordered the invasion of Aquidneck Island, which the British occupied since December 1776, effectively blockading Narragansett Bay. In preparation for the raid, Warren shipwrights built 70 flat-bottom boats, stocked with supplies and gun powder, and hid them at the Kickemuit River stone bridge., On May 25, 500 British and Hessian soldiers landed near Bristol and marched to Warren, where they set fire to the stored boats and supplies and blew up a powder magazine which destroyed six houses and the town's meeting place. After inflicting significant damage on military stores, homes, religious and municipal buildings, the British returned to Aquidneck Island., [Captions:] , const. 1845 This church is on the US National Register of Historic Places., The 130 foot steeple, visible by day and lit at night, has been a navigational guide for homeward-bound sailors for decades., Legend has it a group of Warren women captured a drunken British drummer and imprisoned him in The William Eastabrooke House, 1757 (to the right of the church.), Warren Common , The first Warren fire station was built on this site in 1806, and housed the hand pumper "Hero." Military units and parades have gathered and marched on this site for 200 years.