Just up from Manchester Road from the Lyceum on Woods Mill Road is Manchester Methodist, which has a history dating back to 1826, when the founder of Ballwin, John Ball, donated the land for the first wood frame church, which would be built in 1837. This Neoclassical church would be built in 1856.
Before the new Highway 141 was built, I spent many a time sitting in backed up traffic, waiting for the third or fourth green light to get through the intersection, so I frequently had the time to look at this beautiful, well-proportioned church. It’s such as great example of architecture after the Revolutionary War but before the Civil War.
A little ways up Old Woods Mill Road is the cemetery, which also has a long history in the area, as well, dating back to 1852.
It’s not the largest, but it’s certainly one of the oldest in West County.
The historical setting of the church has been flattened, literally, as the rolling hills were replaced in the Twenty-First Century with massive “lifestyle centers’ built to compete with Gumbo Flats in Chesterfield.
