The Beginning of Another Adventure

First Methodist Episcopal Church

Date Visited:  August 25, 2019

Stop:  #52

It was Saturday night.  Kathy and I were having dinner at The Red Ox located across the street from the Oakland University campus.  We had just spent the day at a one-year-old’s birthday party, and then visited six historical sites in and around Commerce Township.  I was excited about what we had accomplished this day – knocking 6 more historical markers off our quest (actually 5, since one of them was missing) - and wanted to spend the next day doing the same.  I knew the only way that would fly with Kathy was that Sunday’s trip would HAVE to include wineries.  She seemed open to the idea, so I spent a large part of Saturday night mapping out a route that would include historical markers and wineries.  The route I mapped would take us to 6 historical markers and 2 wineries, with all locations being in Macomb County.  So, I dubbed this quest the Macomb County Tour, and proposed it to Kathy.  I got the official thumbs up.  

It was now Sunday morning.  It was gorgeous outside.  We thought we had a perfect day on Saturday, but this day was even better.  We had returned home from church and immediately began to prepare for our day on the road.  Since our tour would take us out to New Baltimore and close to Anchor Bay, we packed a picnic lunch with the hopes of eating lunch in a park on the bay.  I was very excited about the prospects for the day.  Would my expectations be exceeded, met, or dashed?  Follow this blog and the next 7 to find out!

 We left the house by 11:00 am and headed east on Tienken.  It occurred to me that we were going to drive right past historic Stoney Creek Village, and if you recall (assuming you have read my blogs), I had messed up a month earlier.  We had visited the Mount Moriah historical marker within the Stoney Creek Village and made the rookie mistake of not checking the second side of the marker.  See our blog “A Rookie Mistake” (https://michiganwinesandsigns.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-rookie-mistake.html).  As a result, we missed seeing the write-up featuring Stony Creek Masonic Lodge No. 5.  This would be the opportunity to fix that mistake, so we pulled into the village and parked at the beginning of the footpath that led to the historical marker.  Kathy was not up for the walk, so she stayed in the car and I made the short trek to the marker, read the backside of the sign, took the requisite pictures (no selfie, though!!), and headed back to the car.  Mission accomplished.  We were not even 10 minutes into our plan and we already had to deviate (our first, but not our only deviation on this day!!).  But it was worth closing that loop, and the images I took appear in the blog that I posted at the link above.

So, having corrected our mistake, we continued our real quest by jumping back onto Tienken and continuing east.  Our first “official” stop for this day’s quest took us to the intersection of 27 Mile Road and Romeo Plank Road.  There, on the northeast corner, literally a couple of feet off the road, stood the subject of our first historical marker – The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Davis, Michigan, within Ray Township.  We made a left turn onto Romeo Plank so we could enter the very small parking lot that boxed in the church on the north and east side (while 27 Mile road boxed in the church on the south side and Romeo Plank boxed it in on the west side).  Seeing as it was Sunday morning, services were taking place at the time of our visit, so we were very lucky to find one parking spot left in the small lot.  The historical marker is located at the southwest corner of the church, just outside the main entrance, so we headed right for the marker so we could get reading and snapping pictures before the services ended.

There is little information on the history of this building beyond what is written on the historical marker.  The Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in Brooklyn (now Davis), Michigan in 1844 by the Reverend Jonathon Davis.  The congregation built their first church in 1846.  The current building was constructed in 1895 in a Victorian architectural style - a very common construction style for residences, but very unique for a church.  The church has many Victorian features, such as spindles, shingles, and sunbursts.  The Church was renamed the Davis United Methodist Church in 1968.  Today, it is home to the Faith Baptist Church, which took ownership of the building in March 2010.  Typically, they hold services every Sunday morning at 10:30, but in the age of COVID-19, services and times vary.

The architecture of the church makes it very photogenic, but getting a good picture of the church, because of its close proximity to the road, forced me to cross the street to get the best shots.  So, that’s what I did, and, of course, Kathy thought that was funny so she had to take pictures of me taking pictures (one of them is included below).  Of course, Kathy had to take pictures of the many flowers planted around the church, so I had to make sure to get a picture of her taking pictures (none of which made the final copy).  In any event, our visit there lasted only a couple of minutes, but it was a great way to ease into our busy day.

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