1893 Morgan Hill Methodist Church began with a donation of $50 cash and three lots on Monterey Road for the church building site from the C.H. Phillips Land Company. Methodists and Baptists share the building, alternating pastors each Sunday. One pastor preaches in Morgan Hill; the other in Coyote, north of Morgan Hill. Public School meets in the sanctuary.
1894 Catherine Stone founds the first Ladies Aid group, a precursor to today’s United Women in Faith.
1895 Machado School opens; public school no longer meets in the church. Church purchases a bell with $85 raised by the Ladies Aid. Construction begins on the church parsonage (now called Wesley Cottage).
1896 Mrs. L. P. Walker (the pastor’s wife) loses her wedding ring in an unfinished wall of the parsonage. The ring has never been found.
1898 Congregation dedicates the church building and burns the mortgage.
1901 Rev. J. W. Peters starts the church’s first youth group, the Epworth League.
1906 The church builds a barn for the pastor’s horse. (Later a garage, the barn has been rebuilt and now houses the early elementary class.)
1913 Sanctuary is extended and a kitchen is added.
1918 Congregation purchases a used pipe organ from the Methodist Church in Santa Rosa, CA, for $250, and installs it at a cost of $400 over a two-month period in 2019. It was a “hand” pump organ, and was so large that an opening had to be cut into what was then the Sunday School room (now the Library) for the back side of the organ, and to access the bellows. Teenagers got to do the pumping of the bellows, and in return they got excused from the sermon. Based on a chalk date on the back of the organ façade (what is visible now), the organ was built before June 1, 1900.
1921 Pipe organ hand pump bellows replaced with electric blower. Teenagers no longer have an excuse to miss the sermon.
1924 Men’s Club begins with 50 members.
1935 Social Hall is expanded.
1938 Church building is moved west by 17 feet to accommodate widening of Monterey Road.
1950 New Sunday School rooms are added.
1957 Church purchases a new parsonage on Longview Drive.
1969 200 people attend celebration honoring 75th anniversary of the church.
ca. 1980 Pipe organ replaced with new electronic Rogers Cambridge 220-II organ.
1987 Complete restoration begins. Repairs to the bell tower, foundation, and roof improve structural integrity. Painting, landscaping, and interior remodeling enhance the church’s appearance.
2002 MHUMC identifies itself as a Reconciling Congregation.
2012 MHUMC begins the “Sharing the Bounty” Wednesday night community meal program, working together with Martha’s Kitchen food provider. Program ends in 2021 after being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2018 MHUMC celebrates its 125th Anniversary as the Methodist church in mission and ministry in Morgan Hill.