Cokesbury Church, Abingdon

Although the Cokesbury Methodist Church isn't itself as old as many of the churches I've written about here, it has a very long and interesting history. The church is on the site of the Cokesbury College, which was founded in 1784, and classes began a few years later.  

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about the school:

Cokesbury College was founded as the first Methodist college in the United States. Its name was a combination of the names of Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury, who were ordained the first two Methodist bishops in America at the meeting held on Christmas Day, 1784 at which it was also decided to found the college. 

In December 1788, there was an attempt to burn down the college. However the fire was put out by some of the students before it caused significant damage. In 1794, the college was granted a charter by the state of Maryland. The church that served as the chapel to the college did however survive. Cokesbury United Methodist Church (as it is now known by) was first called the Abingdon Methodist Chapel. It was built on land purchased in 1782 from John Paca, the brother of the Governor of Maryland. By 1784 it was opened for worship.

The church was built in the late 1800's after an earlier wood-frame church burned.

The college as an organization ceased to exist after a fire destroyed the building in 1795. 

While none of the college building remains, there is a beautiful bronze model of the building on a plinth in the center of the property. 

The building was said to have been in "dimensions and style of architecture fully equal, if not superior, to anything of the kind in the country." It was brick, 108 feet in length and 40 feet in width, three stories high, and stood on the center of the six acre tract, with almost equal slope on each side.

On the first floor was a large hall, 40 feet square, from each corner of which a winding stairway led to the story above. On each side of the hall were two classrooms, each 20 x 25 feet.

Link to Medusa.