DUKE MEMORIAL
  • Home
    • Welcome
    • Ministry Team
    • Member Profile & Directory
    • Our History
    • Church Council
    • Employment
    • Resources >
      • Capital Campaign
      • Leaving Your Legacy
      • Request Forms
      • Scholarships
      • Safe Sanctuaries
  • Connect
    • Sunday Worship >
      • Offering Ourselves
    • Lent & Easter
    • Children
    • Formation Groups
    • Youth
    • Congregational Care
    • Anti-Racism
  • In & For the City
    • Volunteer / Serve
    • Neighbor to Neighbor
    • Christmas Market
    • Good Samaritan Fund
    • Our Partners
  • News & Events
    • Subscribe
    • The Weekly
    • Church Calendar
    • The Journal
    • In Memoriam
  • PMO
  • Give Online
    • Pledge/ Stewardship
    • Give Now
    • Scheduled Giving

Our History


Picture
What would become Duke Memorial United Methodist Church grew out of the original Methodist congregation in Durham. Members of the Durham Methodist church, soon to be renamed “Trinity Methodist Church,” saw the need for new churches to serve the growing east and west sides of the city. Durham’s population was swelling thanks to the rapid growth of cotton and tobacco manufacture in the city. Tobacco firms like Washington Duke, Sons & Co, and W.T. Blackwell & Co. as well as thriving cotton firms like that of Julian Carr were bringing throngs of new workers to the edges of the city. J.J. Ward wrote of Durham in 1884, “I never saw nor heard tell of a town thriving any faster than Durham.” 

Maude Wilkerson Dunn, daughter of Durham builder Albert Wilkerson, recalled a meeting between her father and Washington Duke: “Mr. Washington Duke was at our house one day and he said…“We’ve got to build another Church.” The factory was just beginning to go and people were moving in here. From just a mere nothing but a store or two beside the road, it was beginning to become quite a town. So Pap said, “We have Trinity Church.” Mr. Duke said, “Yes, but we’ve got to have one for the masses.” So they began, and Main Street Church was built.” 

Industrialists like Washington Duke and Julian Carr did not want Durham to be only a wealthy city; they hoped that Durham would grow into a city which also had culture. Durham at this point was an economic boom-town, with the potential to become a rowdy and unorganized industrial city like many others in the American south and west.   Thus they encouraged the founding of institutions of civilized society, like churches and institutions of higher education, to accompany Durham’s material growth. The establishment of Trinity College in Durham and the building of this church are two primary examples.

Continue Reading

Duke Memorial Archives

Searching the Duke Memorial UMC archives, housed at Duke University by the Divinity School Library, is easy once you get the hang of it. Tom McCauley provided funds to enable this project to take place; it is guided by the church’s history committee.  
Search Archives

Sanctuary Stained Glass

​Since their installation in December 1911, the stained glass windows of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church have been seen by countless observers. These windows tell the story of our faith through the witness of biblical characters as well as that of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. They remind us that we are a part of a larger story, God’s story of redeeming hope and love.  As we celebrate 130 years since the first worship service on the floor of Duke’s tobacco warehouse, we tell the stories of our windows.  Stories of trust in the face of fear, of forgiveness when decisions were poor, of hope as the way grew hopeless and of God’s goodness at the end of every day. How might God use these stained glass stories to speak in to your own story?
Download The Windows booklet
Picture

Further Reading

*The Centenary of Duke Memorial Church : A Portrait of Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, 1975-1986,  by Thomas A. and Ann Marie D. Langford

*Ninety Years of Duke Memorial Church: 1886-1976
     by Wyatt T. Dixon and Members of the Church History    
​     Committee

*Copies are avaiable for pick-up or mail from the church office.

Contact

Duke Memorial UMC
504 W. Chapel Hill Street
Durham, NC  27701
(919) 683-3467 | ​office@dukememorial.org
​
Tax ID: 83-2007575
Our Office is open: Monday - Friday 9:00am - 1:00pm
If you have an urgent pastoral care need outside of our office
​hours please contact (919) 218-2129.

Join Us

Sunday Formation
Sunday Worship
Mid-Week Formation
​Community Ministries

Quick LInks

Church Center & Directory
Manage Scheduled Giving

​Church Calendar
Subscribe
Member Door Code Request
Parking & Building Access
  • Home
    • Welcome
    • Ministry Team
    • Member Profile & Directory
    • Our History
    • Church Council
    • Employment
    • Resources >
      • Capital Campaign
      • Leaving Your Legacy
      • Request Forms
      • Scholarships
      • Safe Sanctuaries
  • Connect
    • Sunday Worship >
      • Offering Ourselves
    • Lent & Easter
    • Children
    • Formation Groups
    • Youth
    • Congregational Care
    • Anti-Racism
  • In & For the City
    • Volunteer / Serve
    • Neighbor to Neighbor
    • Christmas Market
    • Good Samaritan Fund
    • Our Partners
  • News & Events
    • Subscribe
    • The Weekly
    • Church Calendar
    • The Journal
    • In Memoriam
  • PMO
  • Give Online
    • Pledge/ Stewardship
    • Give Now
    • Scheduled Giving