And the Church Goes on 4100 block of river road nw
eldbrooke united methodist church dates to about 1835, when Methodists gathered at the Loughborough Road home of Philip L. Brooke. Soon they built the simple, wooden Mount Zion Methodist Episcopal Church on land purchased from the Murdock family. During the Civil War (1861-1865) Union troops used the church as a guard-house, storehouse, hospital, and mess hall. Later two Rhode Island regiments set up Camp Frieze around the church and along River Road westward to Fort Bayard. Some Union soldiers helped themselves to Tenleytowners’ food and other goods. This irked the wealthy, slaveholding residents who sympathized with the South. Ann Forrest Green of nearby Rosedale wrote of loathing the thou- sands of Union troops who passed by her home “shouting and shooting” randomly. The church suffered so much war-related damage that it was replaced in 1866. When parishioners enlarged the new church in 1899, they renamed it to honor church leaders Aquila Eld and Philip L. Brooke. The large Spanish Mission style sanctuary dates from 1926. With a dwindling membership, Eldbrooke church closed in 2005. The City Church took its place in 2008. On Murdock Mill Road, next to the landmarked church, is the Methodist Cemetery. Behind new iron gates are two centuries of tombstones, many carrying familiar Tenleytown names. This cemetery was open to all. For some years after its last burial in 1989, the grounds were neglected. Then in 2001 Audrey Bates Schwartz spurred the cemetery’s association to restore it to park-like conditions, with help from the Columbian Harmony Society.
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