December 12 - Key West Had the Only English Wesleyan Methodist Church in the United States. - a podcast by 43 Keys Media

The congregation was originally known as the "Gulf of Mexico Mission with Cayo Hueso".

The local history informs us that it was Reverend George Lister, who established the mission in Key West. It was seen as vital to extending the English Wesleyan Methodism to Cuba. While missionaries were sent to Cuba, the overall effort did not produce the hoped for results. Because Catholicism was firmly entrenched in Cuba, and Methodism, was unable to gain many converts.

The congregation in Key West remained as the Mission but for a short time, until it became known as Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church. This was the only English Wesleyan Methodist Church in the United States.

While Methodist societies existed in America as early as 1760, by the late 1800s had become very much its own entity having an independent connection since 1784. Despite the early presence of Methodism in America, the Key West congregation has never held in association with the American Methodist Church.

British Methodist, were not without their factions. In the earlier years, various branches of Methodism sent numerous missionaries out around the world and the English Wesleyan Methodist were no exception. The Bahamas district of the British Connecxion had been established for the area that later included most of the Caribbean. It was through this line that the Key West church had its humble beginnings.

The present Mance was built in 1912, primarily from a cargo of Dade County pine that was salvaged from a ship that had wrecked on the reef. While this was long past the days of the islands famous ship wrecking days, wrecks still occurred. Some research regarding the shipwreck suggests that it may have been a vessel that was found derelict between the Tennessee reef and Coffin Patch and floating upside down in the fall of 1906. The derelict vessels name was not recorded in the Admiralty court records. The vessel's cargo was lumber.

There was not enough wood to complete the entire house, so other material was used randomly in order to prevent a large single location of termite-susceptible wood, according to the builder's son, Alfred Milton Evans, two of the ship's masts were salvaged to find new use as columns on the house. One of the masts became the right front porch column in the corner opposite tower. It's unknown, however, which column is the other former ship mast. The Manse was originally roofed with wooden shingles. The present tin shingle roof was installed entirely by the late AM Evans when he was in his 40s, shortly before he became blind. The house contained a total of 10 rooms. The Manse when built, was designed to withstand sustained hurricane winds of 125 miles an hour, with gusts of 150 miles an hour. Under the clapboard siding, the Manse has a layer of diagonal Board of Dade County pine, each board is fully one inch thick, and roughly 14 inches wide. Water from the Manse came from the church roof as well by the back porch. The first church building extended out over the cistern covering about two thirds of it based on the dimensions the cistern and holds about 20,000 gallons of water. It's not really known what yearr the system was constructed.

The church first built in 1901, seated 500 people and had a small pipe organ. This building was destroyed in the 1909 hurricane, the building's remains were salvaged and a new facility built, only to be destroyed by another hurricane a year later. The current building on this location was built in 1924, and it was designed to withstand sustained hurricane winds of 150 to 175 miles an hour.

In the 1940s, tired of the difficulty in getting ministers from England, the congregation voted to become Presbyterian. A large group that did not favor that change split off and went around the corner to build their own church, retaining the original name - Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church. Two congregations with common routes were divided by only a name.

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