The History of Fullerton’s Oldest Church

The roots of the our church building are in the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1893. The original church was located on Amerige just west of Harbor Blvd. in downtown Fullerton. The congregation thrived and eventually outgrew the little church. Sometime in early 1900’s the church purchased land from the Saint George Hotel which occupied the entire north east block at Harbor Blvd. and Commonwealth Ave.

In 1905 the parsonage was built at 142 Amerige (now a beauty salon) and is still a historic site. The architecture is one of the finest examples of Colonial Revival in Orange County.

In 1909, the congregation built the beautiful craftsman Gothic-style church on the corner of Pomona Avenue and Amerige where it still stands today as Historic Building #47 in the National Registry. The Methodist church continued to use the church as their house of worship until they again outgrew it in 1925. They began building a larger church across the street and began holding services there in 1929. The beautiful church remained vacant until 1931 when it was sold to the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Take a Virtual Tour of the Church

In 1964, the Seventh Day Adventists built a new church and the Methodists bought the church building back from the Seventh Day Adventists with plans to demolish it for a parking lot. The cost to demolish it was too high so they put it up for sale again in 1967 when the First Church of Religious Science purchased the building. Due to the age of the church and years of being vacant, a great deal of restoration was needed. 

In 1987, the Whittier earthquake caused considerable damage to the church building and the city of Fullerton condemned the building as structurally unsafe. Then began a tremendous "Save the Church" campaign to retrofit and repair the church to meet earthquake standards and the congregation returned to their beloved church in time to celebrate Christmas in 1989. We still work diligently to restore and preserve our magnificent building.