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By Laura Eisener
One of the oldest churches in town, the East Saugus United Methodist Church, will hold its final service on Easter Sunday. It is the final chapter for residents who grew up in that church, which was built in 1854. According to a history compiled and written by Stephen P. Carlson in 2016, the congregation can be traced back to 1815, and the first church on this site was built in 1827. The current sizable building had additions built in the 1950s, and an adjacent parsonage added, although a microburst or possibly tornado famously destroyed its steeple on June 8, 1946. In repairing the damage to the building, a new front pavilion was installed in 1949 under the guidance of architect Arland A. Dirham of Boston. They decided not to replace the steeple at that time, but two stained glass windows from 1879 that had been near the pipe organ and were undamaged by the storm were moved to this new entrance space.
In 1965 the congregation held a huge celebration, the 150th anniversary of the Methodist congregation in Saugus, which included several special events over several weeks. There were special guest speakers on several Sundays, and on February 22, 1965, they celebrated the 110th anniversary of the dedication of the church building. The building is now 211 years old and has had many renovations, one of the most recent being a beautifully renovated kitchen.
Some of the parishioners have been members for decades. Steve Carlson joined this church in the late 1990s when the Center Methodist Church on Main Street had similar issues and was purchased by a different congregation. Bill Stewart joined the church in 1949 when he was 15 years old — going on 76 years. Joan Joyce started going to ESUMC at age five and joined the church at 13 years old — a member for 55 years. David Hart has been going to ESUMC for 80 years.
While there have been two other congregations renting space for their services in the building in the past few years, like many churches the primary congregation has diminished to a point that it can no longer sustain the needs of upkeep of the building. Its congregation is dispersing to other local houses of worship: Above the Hills Church and Santidad JVP Ministries. The future of the historic building is in the hands of the Methodist diocese.
Sanjula Lal is the current pastor of the East Saugus United Methodist Church.
