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BY EDWIN SCHELL

On May 21, 2006, a decommissioning service was held at Gatch UMC and the oldest Baltimore Methodist church site (except for Old Otterbein UMC) was abandoned along with the honored name of 'Gatch.'

The action was superceded by a merger with St. Johns of Hamilton UMC, under the new name 'Faith Community UMC.'

Gatch Church began as a Methodist class organized May 1, 1772, after a sermon by Nathan Perigau, a convert of Robert Strawbridge.

Philip Gatch, 22, became a prominent traveling preacher from 1773 to 1777, until he married in Virginia and later moved near Cincinnati. He became a prominent pioneer Ohio local preacher and left a valuable journal.

The original log church was replaced by a stone 40-by-60-foot edifice in 1800 on a half-acre site donated by Benjamin Gatch on Bel Air Road at the present White Avenue.

A division of the Baltimore Circuit in 1806 placed the Gatch church among 22 preaching places on the Great Falls Circuit, a four-week trek from Chesapeake Bay to Pennsylvania.

Although Great Falls Quarterly Conference resolved in 1819 that no slaveholder could be a church official, only in 1855 did Nicholas Gatch defect to begin the first Southern Methodist Church near Baltimore. It was called Andrew Chapel.

In 1856, the stone church was demolished and re-erected debt free. In 1858, Gatch had morning or afternoon preaching each Sunday. Twelve local preachers aided the two fulltime pastors in serving 15 churches and 703 members on the circuit.

The circuit was briefly divided in 1859, leaving Hiss, Gatch, Camp Chapel and Furnace under young B.F. Clarkson who had to sell his horse and walk the circuit, a 13-mile trip from the Hiss parsonage to Camp Chapel and Furnace. Gatch contributed but $34 of his $512 annual salary and disappointed him with the failure of an attempted revival.

In 1891, Gatch had 59 members among 558 on Great Falls Circuit; and in 1900 it was assessed 16 percent of the circuit budget.

However, things began to liven and on Aug. 11, 1904, a $4,000 frame church was erected in front of and connected to the stone building.

Gatch was made a station in 1905 with 70 members and 256 in Sunday school. Its membership exceeded 300 when, in 1921, a Gothic style stone church was erected, aided by funds from the old Jefferson Street church at a cost of $82,000. The frame church was elevated one story, moved to the rear and became Sunday school and gym space until it was destroyed by fire in 1957.

In 1910, Gatch sponsored Overlea Church and in 1914 erected a parsonage with furniture by the Ladies Aid.

From the Sunday school came ministerial candidates N.O. Scribner, C.E. Seymour, Robert Bartlett Jr., Harry Upperman and Millard Knowles, also Lillian McCormick who was licensed to preach in 1926.

After growing to 900 members, in 1959, Gatch added a $168,000 education building. Membership peaked at 962 in 1964, but declined while debt was being liqbwc_superuserated, as happened in countless urban churches. Gatch had 21 faithful pastors from 1905.

Its demise is lamented but remaining is the historic Boy Scout troop begun in 1908 and now relocated.

The Rev. Edwin Schell is the executive director of the United Methodist Historical Society.