First Methodist Church
Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
First Methodist Church. Organized by Rev. William Holman in 1821. First Methodist Conference in Kentucky, 1790, made Frankfort, then a frontier station, part of the Lexington Circuit. The first small church built on Ann Steet. Present site of church purchased, 1856; building completed, 1858. Bishops H. H. Kavanaugh and E. L. Tullis served as pastors of church. Presented by John B. Browning Memorial Class.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
Methodism reached Kentucky when it was still raw frontier: the first conference in 1790 folded Frankfort, then a frontier station, into the sprawling Lexington Circuit ridden by itinerant preachers. A settled Frankfort congregation was organized in 1821 by the Rev. William Holman, worshipping first in a small church on Ann Street before buying the present site in 1856 and completing its building in 1858. Two of its pastors, H. H. Kavanaugh and E. L. Tullis, rose to become bishops.
Why it matters
It traces the spread of frontier Methodism from circuit-riding preachers into a permanent town church — a pattern that carried organized religion across the trans-Appalachian West.
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Related people
- · William Holman
- · H. H. Kavanaugh
- · E. L. Tullis
Themes & tags
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