After the Civil War ended, building supplies and money were in short supply. Yet a small group of parishioners gathered to meet—first in homes, then in a small brush arbor, and finally in a wood-frame church in the Edgewood community. They founded the Inman Park Methodist Church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015. Twenty-three-year-old architect Willis Franklin Denny II (1874–1905) designed the current Romanesque-style sanctuary, constructed of Stone Mountain granite at a cost of $12,620. The cornerstone was laid on September 6, 1897, and the building was dedicated on April 17, 1898.
On the sanctuary walls, large patches of “Denny Blue” calcimine finish can still be seen. Coca-Cola Corporation founder Asa Candler commissioned one of the large stained-glass windows as a tribute to his mother, Martha Beall Candler, at a cost of $125; he had it inscribed with the phrase, “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8).
Service to the community is a strong tradition in the Inman Park Methodist Church. At the communion rail of this church, Asa Candler gave his brother, Bishop Warren Candler, a personal check for one million dollars to found Emory University in 1915.
As Inman Park and the surrounding neighborhoods continue to thrive, so does this church, reflecting the diversity and uniqueness of the community.