Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Dimples Dickenson, 88, of Roanoke has been attending Greene Memorial United Methodist Church at the corner of Church Avenue and Second Street in downtown for almost 50 years. Dickenson was present for the 150th anniversary celebration of the church on Sunday.

Under the attentive eyes of some younger parishioners, Carol O'Neill Worley (left) helps Charlotte Wynn Myers, widow of John Wynn Myers, who served as pastor from 1955 to 1960, cut Greene Memorial's celebratory cake.

The Rev. Gary Robbins of Greene Memorial United Methodist Church meets with the church community at the 150th anniversary party in the social hall after services.

A downtown Roanoke Methodist church's beginning predates many important moments in Roanoke and U.S. history.

The congregation existed before Abraham Lincoln was elected president and before the first French impressionist artwork was painted. This church even came before the city of Roanoke -- Greene Memorial United Methodist Church, under a different name at the time, got its start in 1859 in the village of Old Lick, which eventually became Roanoke.

"I want to remind you that we are not here by accident," said the Rev. Gary Robbins on Sunday morning to about 300 congregation members at Greene Memorial who had gathered to celebrate the church's 150th anniversary. "Greene Memorial United Methodist Church was planted here by God."

Longtime members of this storied congregation at the corner of Church Avenue and Second Street recalled the old days during a Sunday morning worship service and a reception afterwards, where they snacked on vegetables, fruit, crackers and cheese and a chocolate cake decorated with an outline of Greene Memorial and its tall steeple.

"It's been my life," said Evelyn Frantz, 88, who joined the church when she was 9. "I've never known anything but Greene Memorial."

The church was founded by pastor James Armstrong, who preached to this Old Lick congregation in a small chapel on what is now Orange Avenue.

By 1882, the Old Lick church had combined with another Big Lick congregation and, eventually, a Cave Spring church.

The church was growing so fast that it began building a new structure at the corner of Third Street and Campbell Avenue.

The Rev. Leonidas Greene became pastor in 1885, but he died of typhoid fever the next year.

Once the new Roanoke Methodist church building was complete, the 795-member congregation renamed it Greene Memorial.

Only a few years later, in 1902, Greene Memorial purchased its current church property in downtown Roanoke from St. Mark's Lutheran Church, which could no longer afford to complete construction of its building because of an economic depression in Roanoke in the 1890s.

Greene Memorial paid $3,000 for the property and assumed the Lutheran church's $15,000 mortgage. In exchange, St. Mark's moved into Greene Memorial's brick building on Campbell Avenue.

Since the early days, this Gothic-style worship structure has expanded physically and added new ministries. In 1914, the church bought a south side lot to expand its Sunday school.

In 1926, Ernest Skinner, a well-known American organ builder, installed Greene Memorial's three-manual organ. Several world-famous organists, such as E. Power Biggs and Marie Claire Alain, have performed at the church, and its music ministries have put Greene Memorial on the map. That includes its Fine Arts Series, which invites national and international musicians to perform on Sunday afternoons at the church.

Recently, Richard Cummins, organist and director of music and fine arts, received a call from an orchestra and choir in Russia, requesting to perform at Greene Memorial next year.

"All of this is nonsolicited," Cummins said, attributing the church's widespread musical reach to the Internet.

Still, churches in many cities face challenges because they compete for membership with suburban churches closer to people's homes.

Membership at Greene Memorial peaked at 2,000 twice in the church's history, though now it's down to 684 members who average 60 years old, Robbins said.

"For folks to come downtown, many of them have to drive by several churches to worship with us," he said.

But the church is committed to its downtown ministry, Robbins said. It hosts a noon worship service and lunch on Wednesdays, which draw people who live and work in downtown Roanoke.

Also, this fall, Robbins held a Lunch & Learn series at Cornerstone Bar & Grill in downtown, with small group discussions on relationships over lunch on Mondays.

During his Sunday sermon, Robbins reminded the congregation that the first church was born in the bustling Jerusalem, a center of activity.

"There is nothing more exciting than to be a city church," he said.

Sandy Murray agrees. She likes that her 15-year-old daughter, Arizona, has made new friends at Greene Memorial who do not all attend her high school. The downtown church attracts youth from throughout the Roanoke Valley, not just from her family's Roanoke neighborhood.

Murray, her husband, Shawn, and their two children have attended Greene Memorial for 10 years.

"The day I came here, I found home," she said.

Greene Memorial will add another page to its history next year. Starting in January, it plans to renovate a building next door. The project, estimated at $2.5 million, would enlarge the church's social hall, create an open welcome center area and make way for new offices and classroom spaces, outfitted with projectors and screens.

So far the church has raised $1 million, and the project is awaiting bids from contractors, Robbins said.

Architectural renderings of the work were on display at Sunday's anniversary reception, serving as a juxtaposition of history and the future.