Reuniting after years of separate ministry in the community, three United Methodist congregations, First United, Fleming Street, and Ley Memorial, merged to form the Key West United Methodist Church on June 19, 1994. This merger brought the Key West Methodists hack to its mother church building, "Old Stone".
Methodist preaching was first heard in Key West in 1832 when two traveling missionaries came here by schooner. For the next 12 years the gathering of Methodists was a simple, independent group often meeting in the home of Samuel Kemp, a Bahamian Methodist lay person, who moved here in 1837. Some of Samuel Kemp's descendants continue to worship in the sanctuary today.
The first Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1844 and the Reverend Alexander Graham was appointed as pastor the next year. In 1845 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was formed and became the appointing body.
In 1939 The Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church became The Methodist Church. They merged with The Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1969, and The United Methodist Church was born.
