Boehm's Chapel: Pennsylvania's Oldest Methodist Structure
Near Intercourse, Pennsylvania
The small limestone building you are near is called Boehm's Chapel, and it holds a quiet distinction: it is the oldest surviving structure built for Methodist worship in Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest in the entire country.
Constructed in seventeen ninety-one on land that once belonged to Bishop Martin Boehm, the chapel carries its founder's name and his legacy. Boehm was co-founder of the United Brethren in Christ, a movement that grew from the same German pietist roots as the surrounding community. The chapel became a regular stop for Bishop Francis Asbury, the circuit-riding preacher known as the father of American Methodism, who visited repeatedly during his decades of travel across the new nation. That two of early American Methodism's most important figures were both connected to this single country chapel says something about how much a small limestone room can hold.
