A Green Serpentine Landmark on Washington Street
Grace United Methodist Church stands at 900 North Washington Street in Wilmington, Delaware, occupying the block where Ninth and West Streets meet the city's downtown edge. The building, a High Victorian Gothic Revival structure of green serpentine sandstone quarried in Chadds Ford with a base course of brown stone from New Brunswick, New Jersey, sits on the National Register of Historic Places. Two towers rise from the complex: the taller one on Ninth Street supports a carillon of bells. Since 1865 the congregation has occupied this corner, and it now describes itself as a "home for works and wonders," a multigenerational United Methodist community whose life stretches from a historic sanctuary of stained glass and organ music to a nationally distinctive ministry with the Deaf community.
From Civil War Mission to City Landmark
The story of Grace Church begins during the Civil War. Members of St. Paul's Methodist Church in Wilmington proposed a mission chapel on the edge of the growing city, a district whose population in 1865 numbered around 30,000 and whose streets still gave way to pasture land within a few blocks of the new site. The land was purchased in October 1864, the cornerstone was laid the following year, and the chapel was finished on March 25, 1866. The main sanctuary was dedicated in January 1868. Church planners had originally projected an $80,000 project, then expanded the design to include a two-story annex behind the sanctuary, bringing the final cost to roughly $200,000.
Local children were let out of school to watch workmen raise the bell tower framework in 1866, and a century later the soot of coal-heated Wilmington had blackened the stonework. By the early twentieth century the nine-story tower held a working carillon, and the parsonage next door, Bassett Hall, had been built in 1870 of the same green serpentine stone. Bassett Hall became an office for church mission in the 1970s and was razed in 1998 to make way for a community playground. In 1910 the church acquired the neighboring residence at 903 West Street for office and meeting space, and the trustees and stewards of the era posed on its front steps for the camera.
A Sanctuary Full of Stained Glass
The sanctuary itself is a museum of Methodist devotional art. Early windows followed the geometric and leaf patterns typical of High Victorian Gothic, reflecting a Protestant caution about figurative imagery. The West Street façade tracery is original to Thomas Dixon's design, and the stained glass from the 1870s likely grew from his drawings. Above the gallery is the Trefoil Window, a tri-cornered oculus with a Tudor Rose pattern that symbolizes the Trinity.
Between 1913 and 1914, twenty-one memorial windows were installed along the north and south walls of the sanctuary, replacing the 1870s glass. Each pairs a figurative panel, drawn from catalogs of painters like Heinrich Hoffmann, William Bouquereau, Bernard Plockhorst, and Julius Schnoor, with a symbolic medallion. The Rev. William J. Stevenson Window shows the Sermon on the Mount; the Henry Evans Window shows Christ the Sower; the William H. Curry and Margaret A. Curry Window shows Christ knocking at the door. Each carries a Latin, Greek, or scriptural emblem in the tracery, from the Ten Commandments to the Chi Rho, from Noah's Ark to the I.H.S. christogram.
On February 24, 1924, the Gambrill family donated what is one of the largest stained glass windows in the United States, a piece approximately 22 by 26 feet and containing over 18,000 fragments. Titled "Come to Me," it was designed by H. B. Hankinson, a former Tiffany studio artist, with figures by Charles Mente. In 1940, the firm Rambusch of New York renovated the sanctuary, raising the pulpit and lectern and adding a blessing inscription in gold leaf on the rear wall. That inscription was kept and reframed during the next major redesign in 1995, when Vigo Rambusch planned a near-total reordering of the room. The renovation added a three-step raised platform, nearly 25 by 50 feet, designed for worship, drama, dance, and concerts; canted the pews and inserted a center aisle; and added a two-story Washington Street pavilion with a reception area, elevator, restrooms, and parlor, connected by a two-story link between the church house and the West Street narthex.
Sunday Mornings at Grace
The in-person Sunday service is a traditional United Methodist liturgy, accompanied by the sanctuary organ and rooted in the rhythms and prayers of the historic church. The congregation notes that while some prayers and hymns carry gender-specific language for God, worshipers are invited to use expressions that reflect the full inclusiveness of God's Spirit, and to sing or pray in their native tongue if they wish. The building is open from 9 AM to noon on Sundays and from 8 AM to 2 PM Monday through Thursday.
Parking is free on the east side of the church and on Washington Street in front of the building. Childcare is provided for babies and toddlers during worship and Sunday morning classes by a team of caregivers in a safe, warm setting, with each child signed in and out by a parent or guardian.
A Whole Ministry for the Deaf Community
The Deaf Ministry at Grace Church is among the most distinctive features of the congregation, led by Karen Miller, a Deaf certified lay leader, alongside Patti Collett Ravilious, also a certified lay leader. Every month, the third Sunday brings a Deaf Community Worship service with communion, and the second Sunday brings visiting guests leading discussion. The ministry advocates for establishing Deaf group homes in Delaware, makes pastoral visits to hospitals and nursing homes, and hosts a one-week residential camp each summer for Deaf people of all ages.
The same network organizes Thanksgiving and Easter gatherings with special guests, runs a health workshop that has included a mammogram workshop, and supports student mentoring and 5K fundraisers at the Delaware School for the Deaf. Mission trips coordinated through the ministry have reached Zimbabwe, Kenya, Jamaica, and Red Bird, Kentucky. The ministry also partners with AARP to host a free tax workshop, both at Grace Church and at a satellite site in Rehoboth Beach.
Card Notes, Outreach, and Music
Beyond the Deaf Ministry, Grace Church runs a small but steady set of programs. The Card Ministry gathers on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 10 AM to noon in Johns Room on the third floor to write birthday notes, prayers, and encouragement to members and neighbors, treating each handwritten envelope as a small ministry of presence.
The Outreach Ministry extends practical care to the wider Wilmington community, and a Justice and Mercy initiative is in development. The Music Ministry, under Director Gabe Benton, shapes the organ-and-choir tradition that anchors Sunday worship. A Prayer Ministry offers pastoral care, and the congregation maintains a prayer request channel for members and friends seeking prayer or spiritual guidance.
Online Worship and Generosity
Worship at Grace Church is available online through a video library that captures recent services for streaming and replay, so those who cannot attend in person can follow the same liturgy and sermon at home. A weekly e-newsletter keeps subscribers connected to upcoming events, ministries, and outreach opportunities.
Generosity is part of the church's stated vocabulary, framed as prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. The congregation supports its mission, "to be an urban faith center for sending and receiving mission in Christ's name," through online giving via PayPal, mailed gifts to the Washington Street address, or in-person offerings placed in the plate during worship or dropped at the church office.
Leadership and Beliefs
Grace Church is pastored by the Rev. Dave Ingalls as Senior Pastor. Rich Parson directs Outreach Ministries, Gabe Benton directs Music Ministry, and Karen Miller leads the Deaf Ministries program. The staff and a wider circle of volunteers together carry the congregation's day-to-day work of worship, fellowship, and service.
In its own words, Grace Church believes in the transforming power of God's grace made known through Jesus Christ and alive in the Holy Spirit. Its mission statement calls it an urban faith center for sending and receiving mission in Christ's name, and it lives out that calling from a green serpentine sanctuary whose towers, stained glass, and Sunday organ have welcomed worshipers from the city's edge for more than 160 years.