Sanctuary's History
A Look at the History of Sanctuary United Methodist

North Wales in the 1850s
Before the railroad found North Wales, the sounds that reached a front porch were most likely the sounds of nature—cows, dogs, and roosters—and perhaps the occasional chain clanking from a team of horses or oxen working their way up a hill.

Travel was about to become easier and, with easier travel, communications were about to explode. When we can travel and communicate, outlying areas grow.

Farmers from North Wales took their goods to market in Philadelphia. This meant getting up long before daybreak to make the twenty-five mile trip to the Philadelphia markets. This took most of a day. If the farmer stayed overnight, then it was another day’s trip to come home. Bringing goods to market meant a two day trip to Philadelphia.

But the times were about to change, radically so: In 1857, the railroad came through North Wales.

Now you could get to the city in 2 hours. What a revolution of an agrarian culture!

Joseph Anders
A man named Joseph Anders built a house at what is now the corner of 3rd and Church streets. He and his wife had come to North Wales, most likely from the East Norriton area, in the late 1840s and, in addition to his home, he also owned 48 acres to its east. This property—a sizeable portion of North Wales—was bounded approximately by 2nd Street, Montgomery Avenue, 10th Street, and Prospect Avenue.

Joseph was a Methodist; he attended the church in Montgomery Square that, by 2005, was moving to a new location after being hemmed in by highways (Routes 309 and 202) and a Burger King.

After a while, Joseph started to hold meetings in his house. He continued to do this for several years.

We don’t know a lot about Joseph’s business, but apparently he had a successful farm. Besides the usual crops, he also grew flowers. Using the railroad, he could get his flowers to Philadelphia without delay.

One day in 1871, Joseph looked out his front door. He saw that the Lutherans were building a new church at the end of his lane. His parishioners were still meeting in his house.

The early churches in the area
At this time, the North Wales area had three other Protestant churches: the Lutherans, the Reformed (now part of the United Church of Christ), and the Baptists.

The Lutherans and the Reformed shared a single church building, which, owing to the yellow ochre in its plaster, was known as the Yellow Church. It was in the middle of a graveyard, just outside of the borough at the corner of Sumneytown Pike and Prospect Avenue. Each congregation held services on alternating weeks. It was an odd arrangement, but one that occurred quite often in areas where Germans had settled.

Rather than repairing the Yellow Church, first the Reformed and then the Lutherans abandoned the building. The Reformed moved to their present location on Main Street; the Lutherans to theirs on the corner of Church and Main.

The Baptists originally were located on Allentown Road, just off Sumneytown Pike, probably close to the cemetery that is still there. When they moved to their present location on Shearer Street, Joseph Anders decided it was time to do something.

The first building…
In 1871, Joseph sold a piece of his land at the corner of 4th and Montgomery Avenues to the congregation for $700 and they commenced to build a new church building. The stone for the building was supplied by a local quarry; this quarry was on 4th Street across from the Elementary School, and may have been owned by Joseph. The price seems high for such a small piece of land in those days, but that is what happened.

It was not until 1879 that the building was complete—or, at least, complete enough to hold services. The original building had two rooms: a sanctuary upstairs and a general meeting room downstairs. It had no basement, nor did it have rooms for Sunday School. Church services and preaching were what “church” was all about.

In the early years there were regular struggles to meet the expenses and pay the Pastor. The congregation built a parsonage on the other side of 4th Street. It was a decent house, well-built, though, as the years went by and a number of families came and went, it became a bit run down. After the First World War, the congregation built an addition onto the back of the church. It contained Sunday School rooms and a basement with a new coal-fired heater. The basement was used for dinners as well as additional space for Sunday School. The church continued in this way until after the Second World War.

North Wales grows…
During the Second World War, a factory that made bearings was built at the edge of town on Sumneytown Pike, opposite the present day Parkside Place and Upper Gwynedd Township Building, on what is now one of the many Merck campuses in the area. This factory was sold at the end of the war. In 1951 or 1952, the property was sold again, this time to Merck, Sharp and Dohme, which built a laboratory on the site. They moved in and about the same time, Leeds and Northrup, an instrument manufacturer, moved into a new building just west of North Wales between Beaver Street and Dickerson Avenue (another Merck building occupies that site today). Before Leeds and Northrup moved in, their site had been occupied by Florex Gardens, a rose grower. The location—near to the North Wales train station and the present site of the North Wales Post Office—meant they could easily ship their roses to market by rail. The Florex greenhouse was immense; in fact, it was said to be the largest in the world.

The church grows and moves
With businesses moving to the area, people were also moving in. In the 1950s, the housing market was booming around North Wales. This brought more people to the churches; before long our little church was bulging. Sunday School classes were held in the parsonage and every other available space.

The congregation had much conversation about what to do and how, where, and if to expand. Several members met with the Church Missionary and Expansion Committee and recommended that a parcel of land at the corner of Hancock Road and Prospect Avenue be purchased. The Philadelphia Conference did that and bought 14 acres for $22,000.00. We eventually went through the proper procedures to move and build a new church.

We moved into our current building in 1967. It still looks very much like it did originally. The building cost $256,000 to complete, not including the furniture and organ. When we moved we had some 200 members. By 2005, we have grown to approximately 800 members. Who could have foreseen this four-fold growth? We are fortunate to be here and experience this wonderful group of people. If we had not moved, we would still be struggling in the old building, with no chance to grow and do God's work.

The old is new again
The sanctuary of the church at 4th and Montgomery had been refurbished in 1956. Many in the congregation were reluctant to abandon the new features. So, when we moved, we brough the lectern, the pulpit, and the altar—all part of the refurbishment. The alpha and omega over the dossal above the altar also came from the old church, as did the baptismal font. The baptismal font appears to be quite old, though we don’t have an exact age. The balusters under the communion rail were part of the original communion rail at 4th and Montgomery. They have been moved a number of times and changed color several times, but they have the most memories of services at Sanctuary.

Birth of a name?
No one now knows where the word “Sanctuary” came into our history. Some think that it was a reaction to the Civil War which was so deeply felt by everyone in this nation: Joseph Anders wanted our church to be a “Sanctuary.”

Visit Joseph Anders
Joseph is buried in the graveyard at Sumneytown Pike and Prospect Avenue. His tombstone is an obelisk, rather pretentious, but facing backward. If only we could meet him; we would have lots of questions.