Everett Memorial Methodist Church Directory 1963
First Methodist Church of Binghampton held its first services in a
storefront on Broad Avenue in 1907. The following year, the
congregation purchased some property several blocks to the south and
constructed its first church building, a small concrete chapel at the
corner of Merton Street and Oxford Avenue. In the early 1930s,
despite the Great Depression, the Everett family donated several
adjacent lots to the congregation and the First Methodist Church of
Binghampton began fundraising to construct a new, larger church
building. The congregation changed its name to Everett Memorial
United Methodist Church in honor of the Everetts' generous bequest,
and completed their new church in 1935.
Binghampton continued to grow throughout the 1940s and 1950s and
the church expanded to meet the community's needs. In 1957, the
church and community gathered together to celebrate the opening of
the church's new Sunday School annex - an addition that more than
doubled the size of the building. The church became a very active
center of praise, learning, and community.
However, as the City of Memphis sprawled to the east, many of the
congregants at Everett Memorial left Binghampton for the newer
suburbs. In the early 2000s, the leadership of the church made the
courageous decision to give their church building new life by donating
it to Center for Transforming Communities, then known as CONECT,
inc. On September 27, 2007, representatives of Everett Memorial
United Methodist Church, CONECT, and the Binghampton
neighborhood gathered at the corner of Merton Street and Oxford
Avenue to rededicate the building as a site of hope, healing and
transformation for Binghampton and the entire Memphis region.
