Religion and the Arts in Murfreesboro

Murfreesboro Center for the Arts was originally an undertaker and carpentry shop; then livery stable on site; became site for the US Post Office; current building built in 1909-1910; designed by James Knox Taylor-architect of the US Treasury; first federal building in Murfreesboro and Rutherford County; built in Renaissance Revival style; in the 1960s became home of Linebaugh Library; in the 1990s became the Center for the Arts.

The First Methodist congregation had two prior church sanctuaries before this current structure was built. The First Methodist congregation had a structure on Maple Street and College Street in 1823 before moving to Church and College Street in the 1840s, which was eventually remodeled in 1888. This church sanctuary was constructed by H.C. Jackson in the Romanesque Revival Style and completed in 1888. In 2016, Murfreesboro city government bought the building from Franklin Synergy Bank, and in June 2019, Murfreesboro’s City council announced that it had sold the property to a developer, One East College LLC. The developer has agreed to incorporate the church sanctuary and bell tower into mixed development plans.

First Presbyterian’s congregation dates to 1812, meeting at what was known as the Murfree Spring Church on East Vine Street by the Old City Cemetery. Rev. Henderson, the first pastor, also led the church’s log cabin school, which developed into Bradley Academy. One of Rev. Henderson’s first pupils was James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States. The original log church served as the state capital from 1818 to 1826 and as a field hospital during the Civil War but was dismantled in 1868 by the Union for building materials and supplies. A new brick building was constructed on the corner of College and Spring street in October of 1868. This brick church sanctuary was destroyed by a 1913 tornado, but its bell tower remained intact and can be seen in today’s current Neoclassical building, constructed in 1914.