The Parkman Street Methodist Episcopal Church started as a Sunday School mission on Park Street in the old Park Street Hall, Harrison Square, July 17, 1870. Later it was located at 29 Parkman Street. It was organized as the Harrison Square Methodist Episcopal Church on July 12, 1874. The pulpit was filled by supply ministers from the Missionary Society until 1875, when Rev. James W. Bashford was appointed the pastor. Under his guidance, the present Parkman Street site was purchased from Joseph Dix in 1877, the corner-stone was laid August 28, 1877, and the church was dedicated January 10, 1878.
In 1902 the church was remodeled so extensively as to be called a new church building.
Pastors:
James W. Bashford, 1875-1878
L.D. Bragg, 1878-1880
J.H. Thompson, 1881-1883
B.J. Johnson, 1884-1886
F.J. Hale, 1887-1889
William Full, 1890-1895
Samuel Jackson, 1896-1897
Seth C. Carey, 1897-1899
M.G. Prescott, 1900-1901
J.P. Chadbourne, 1902-1908
George L. Collyer, 1909-1910
B.G. Seaboyer, 1910-1911
Alfred Woods, 1911-1912
Frank Linder, 1913-1914
William C. Poole, 1915-1917
Walter Van Kirk, 1917-1919
Duane B. Aldrich, 1920-1921
George G. Squires, 1921-1922
George B. Callender, 1922-1923
Lawrence L. Blackburn, 1923-1925
J. Elmore Brown, 1926-1929
Daniel A. Thurston, 1930-1933
Waldo E. Dunn, 1934-1935
Roger E. Makepeace, 1936-1938
Dean Johnson, 1939-1940
Ralph W. Decker, 1941-1943
Malcolm C. Kier, 1944-1945
Franics C. Wilson, 1946-1947
Warren Steinkraus, 1948-1949
Ernest L. Mills, 1949-
For more information, consult:
Chaffee, John R. The History of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1917)
Dorchester Old and New, 1630-1930. (Dorchester: Chapple Publishing Company for the Dorchester, Massachusetts, Tercentenary Committee, 1930)
50th Anniversary, 1874-1924: History and Souvenir. Dorchester: Parkman Street Methodist Episcopal Church,1924.
75th Anniversary, 1875-1950. Dorchester: Parkman Street Methodist Church, 1950.