The first religious body in
the town was a union Sunday School that met in the Oddfellows Hall.
Out of this group came the DeRidder Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Organized in 1901, its first pastor was Rev. Nelson Hoffpauir. By
1902, the meeting place had been moved to the first floor of the Masonic
Hall. In 1905, the Hudson River Lumber Company gave the church two
lots on the northeast corner of the present courthouse square. The
cornerstone of the church was laid on July 2, 1905. It was a frame
building with a gabled roof, high arched windows, and a bell tower.
Services weren’t held in the new church until November due to a yellow
fever epidemic in the area.
The church property was sold
for $7,500 on September 11, 1913 to make room for parish buildings since
DeRidder had become the parish seat. The church building was moved
to New Heights Road (present-day Martin Luther King Drive). Later
that year, James E. McMahon turned down other offers to sell property at
the corner of Pine and Port Streets to the church for $2,000. Rev.
Walter S. Henry was appointed to the church in December 1914 to help with
the building of the new church. The brick church was completed the
following year. At the rear of the sanctuary was a large meeting
room surrounded by Sunday School rooms. The first parsonage was acquired
at this time.
In 1920, the 75th session of the Louisiana
Annual Conference was held in DeRidder. When the parsonage burned
down in 1931, a new one was rebuilt in the same location.
By 1951, the church had outgrown
its educational facilities. Extra Sunday School classes were begin
held at the parsonage and at a rented house across Pine Street. The
church raised $32,000 to start work on a new education building in April
of 1951. The remainder of the cost ($43,000) was paid off in the
next three years. Besides classrooms, the new building contained
an office, parlor, fellowship hall, kitchen, and pastor’s study.
A new parsonage was built on
Lee Avenue on property donated by J.H. Cain and L.C. Lee in 1958.
By the 1960s, the church had
outgrown its sanctuary. Property on the corner of Shirley and Broad
Streets was purchased from the J.D. Frazar family. Construction began
on the Georgian Colonial design in January 1965. The new church included
ten stained glass windows, a rose window, and a pipe organ. The first
service in the new church was held in January 1966.
The Methodist Men led in remodeling
the old facilities into a recreational area and fellowship hall.
The old parsonage was moved to make room for a play area. Another
lot on the block was purchased at that time.
After a lot on the corner of
Pine and Shirley Streets was donated to the church by Mr. and Mrs. T.R.
Sartor, Jr. in the late 1980s, plans for a Family Life Center were begun.
The $1.2 project began under the leadership of Rev. Rick Hebert and was
completed while Rev. John and Marie Williams served the church in 1994.
A prayer garden was constructed
in 1983-84
Source: History of DeRidder UMC |
