A Brief History of Trinity Park UMC

The Methodist Protestant church of Greenfield, Indiana, was organized in the Presbyterian church in 1885, by the Rev. Hugh Stackhouse. There were forty-nine members of the church. Services were held in the home of the pastor, Charles Evans, for about one and one-half years prior to the organization. For a short time afterward, services were held in the Grange Hall. The congregation then worshipped starting in 1886 for a time in and old brick building that once housed a blacksmith shop which stood where the barn of the New Milling Company was later located, on the southwest corner of Main and Spring streets.

The first trustees, George O. Knight, C. M. Kirkpatrick, Morgan Chandler, James T. Bodkin and S. O. Shumway, were elected in the winter of 1887. The following summer a building was erected on South Street. On the day of the dedication, the lot on which it stoods was presented to the Indiana Methodist Protestant conference by Nelson Bradley and wife, with a check for one hundred and fifty dollars. The membership was then weak, but possessed the spirit of earnestness. The members of the other churches, also many citizens, nobly came to their assistance and made the enterprise possible. Many of the liberal donors were S. O. Shumway, who had the church construction; W. C. Dudding, Nelson Bradley, Morgan Chandler, C. E. Kinder, J. T. Bodkin, C. M. Kirkpatrick, William A. Hough, William H. Pauley, George W. Crider, David L. Duncan, Joseph P. Knight and Mrs. W. C. Dudding.

The first church was built under the pastorate of Rev. J. C. Smith. The original parsonage was built under the pastorate of Rev. D. W. Evans, in the year 1891. The church was remodeled and enlarged in 1898 under the pastorate of Rev. D. W. Evans. In 1903, the annual conference, which convened at Muncie, set apart Greenfield as a station, with Rev. J. R. Moody as pastor.

In 1916, The Ladies' Lookout Society of the church consised of about sixty members, and was for a number of years a great financial aid to the church.

The Sunday school was organized in 1885, with Dudley Hudson as superintendent, who served for two years.

The church remained a Methodist Protestant congregation until 1939 when the reunification of the Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Protestant denominations took place. It was then renamed South Street Methodist Church.

In 1956, six acres were purchased on the northwest side of Greenfield and in 1961 a new building was erected and dedicated in 1962. The church was renamed Trinity Park Methodist Church due it part to its location on Park Avenue. In 1968, when the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist church denominations united it became Trinity Park United Methodist Church. The addition of an education wing was built in 1968 and then a parsonage was constructed in 1972 behind the church building.