Fairview Village Methodist Church

Fairview Village Methodist Church, which is not to be confused with the Fairview Methodist Church which was at North 23rd Street and River Avenue in Cramer Hill, first met as an organized church and Sunday School in 1920. The meeting place was above the Weiss Brothers 5 and 10 Cent Store at 2961 Yorkship Square, Camden. The Primary Department, which had a small pump organ, met in a room of six by eight feet. Mrs. Matthews, Mrs. H. Haig, and Mrs. Herbert Taylor had charge of ten or twelve children ranging in age from two to twelve years. The congregation consisted of twenty to twenty-five people. From this number a small choir was formed. The place of meeting soon became inadequate and the congregation moved across the street to above what was then Carlton H. Strang’s drugstore, later Edmund J. Lenny’s real estate office at 2977 Yorkship Square.

The move to the present church building on the corner of Chesapeake Road and North Merrimac Road came in 1924. The church had an active Ladies’ Aid, a Men’s Bible Class, and a Women’s Bible Class. Cottage prayer meetings were held in homes. Tithing was preached and practiced and a Home Missionary Society was organized for members who were unable to go out to church.

In 1959 the church was, with the addition of a new sanctuary, for all intents and purposes rebuilt. The family of the Rev. Stacy D. Myers, gave the baptismal font in memory of their parents, which font is still in use.