Copyright © 2008 Vineyard Methodist Church
1395 South Grade Rd SW, Hutchinson, MN 55350
(320 587-2200)
vineumc@hutchtel.net
Vineyard United Methodist Church has ministered to the community
for 151 years.
Methodists circuit riders came to Hutchinson in 1856. Hutchinson was just
a small village but in 1857 the official Methodist society was organized by
Asa B. Hutchinson, Wilbur and John Higgins, and Dr. John Benjamin familes.
Asa Hutchinson purchased a load of lumber in early 1870 and built the first
community church in Hutchinson on a plot of land given by Lewis Harrington.
The 20 acre plot of land was given to the community for for park purposes. The church was on the same land and so began questions about the title of the church. This was resolved in 1870 by a special act of the state legislature with Lewis Harrington as the McLeod county representative.
The singing Hutchinsons traveled east to perform five concerts to raise fund for the new Methodist church. A camp meeting in Martha's Vineyard Massachussettes resulted in a four hundred ddollar love offering and the gift of the bell. The bell bears the inscription, "A present to Vineyard M.E. Church by Boston friends, 1874". The church bears the name from which these gift cometh.
The original church building was moved west and a loarge new sancturary was added in 1892. The old church was one of the most up to date places of worship when in 1917 a basement with modern facilities was placed under the entire structure.
The original building had become outgrown in 1955 and a committee was formed to investigate an expansion. Ground was broken in 1964 for a new church facility on five acres of land donated by the Enevoldsen family. The orignal site which had served nearly 100 years of ministry was closed in 1966. The new church opened in April, 1966.