This was the first Huron City Church to be built on this site. Unlike other structures in Huron City, the church did not burn down. Langdon Hubbard donated the property in 1882 and the church was built in 1883. Prior to building the church, the Methodists held their services in the Community Inn.

Huron City Church

William Lyon Phelps, a Yale University Professor, famed literary critic and ordained minister, made Huron City his summer home for 40 years in the early 1900's. He became known throughout the world as a leading literary scholar, educator, author, book critic and preacher. He was an engaging and incandescent orator who drew large audiences wherever he spoke. He lectured on the famous Townhall Lecture circuit nationwide.

In the summer of 1922, the pastor of the Huron City Methodist Episcopal Church asked him to preach there. His Sunday afternoon services began to attract such large numbers of people that the little church was expanded twice, in 1925 and again in 1929, to accommodate the crowds. Frank Hubbard and his wife Elizabeth made contributions to the church, which made the new construction possible.

At the height of Billy’s popularity, between 800 and 1,000 people attended his summer services at Huron City. Billy wrote in his autobiography that the pews would seat 600 people and an additional 400 people could be seated using folding chairs. Some first hand accounts tell of overflow crowds who would sit outside the packed church, listening through the windows.

On occasional Sunday afternoons, Mrs. Phelps would entertain the parishioners with ice cream socials on the lawn of Seven Gables.