BUMC
Discovering Life Together
at Boone UMC Story by Joe Johnson Photography by Tara Diamond
B
oone United Methodist Church began its journey in the High Country in the year 1866, as Boone Methodist Episcopal Church South, when its members began congregating in the Watauga County Courthouse. In 1877, as more people joined the congregation, a “barn-like� building was constructed on West King Street for the church. Continued growth in the size of the congregation resulting in the need for the 247-member congregation to move into a new site for the church, purchased in 1918 at what is now 341 East King Street. For the next 63 years, the congregation grew its ministry on King Street until, in 1981, tragedy struck the 700-member church when a tar pot being used for church roof repairs exploded, causing a fire that destroyed the church sanctuary. The congregation immediately sprang into action and construction on a new building began in 1982 on the same King Street site. By 1984, the new edifice was completed at the cost of $1.2 million, a debt which
FAITH MAGAZINE - Spring 2020
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