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Community United Methodist Church
Pacific Palisades Community Methodist Church, Via de la Paz, c. 1955 (Princeton Theological Seminary Digital Commons)
Location	801 Via de la Paz Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Denomination	United Methodist Church
Website	palisadesmethodist.org
Architecture
Groundbreaking	August 18, 1929

Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades is a United Methodist church in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The community of Pacific Palisades was laid out as a result of Methodist church planters selecting an area on the bluffs south of Santa Monica as the location of their new Southern California camp meeting. The congregation initially worshipped in tents set up in Temescal Canyon. The first Community Methodist church building was dedicated in 1930, with substantial expansions in 1952 and the late 1960s. The church was damaged during the Palisades Fire on January 8, 2025.

History

Community Methodist was the first house of worship established in what is Pacific Palisades, by Methodist missionary settlers who simultaneously founded and named Pacific Palisades. The church was founded in 1922 under the oversight of Rev. Marle Smith of Pasadena, who sought a new "assembly area" for the church that could support a summer camp and a youth institute. The Palisades is unusual amongst west Los Angeles communities in that it "was not founded as a speculative enterprise promoted by subdividers, but by a need for more space in which to carry on program of religious education." The Pacific Palisades community was the successor to a Methodist church and community center called Alomar in Huntington Beach; in 1920, after a six-year search "they reported that a great assembly area modeled after that at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, was needed. In May of the following year 1,100 acres in the Santa Monica area were purchased for $660 an acre. The Pacific Palisades Association was organized." The Huntington Beach location was sold—apparently the discovery and development of the Huntington Beach Oil Field nearby created both an unpleasant place to worship and a good opportunity to sell real estate. The proceeds from the sale of Alomar bought the bluffs from the Santa Monica Land and Water Company, church conference set aside "certain space" for "institutional purposes," and the remainder was subdivided for sale. From 1922 until 1929, congregants worshipped at a tent camp in Temescal Canyon and then in the Pacific Palisades Association building. Another one of the Methodist institutions established, circa 1921, was the Pacific Palisades Rest Home Society, a retirement home for deacons and deaconesses, an institution that was later relocated to Alhambra. Unfortunately for investors, the lots held by the Pacific Palisades Association did not sell rapidly, interest accrued, additional purchases added to the debt, and then the Great Depression was on, such that by 1934, "foreclosure to the bondholders was recorded."

The church proper was built on a 1.5 acre site donated by the Southern California Methodist Conference, and the original sanctuary building cost $35,000. The groundbreaking for the original church building on Via de la Paz took place on August 18, 1929. There were 73 charter members in congregation. A new sanctuary was built in 1952, and the original building became the Fellowship Hall and the Sunday School rooms. In the 1960s, the church supported the establishment of the North Redondo United Methodist Church in Redondo Beach, California. By 1967, the church had 700 members and fundraising was underway for the construction of new offices, a sanctuary annex, a smaller chapel, a bride's room, and more classrooms.

The church has been used as a filming location for multiple TV series: in August 2016 an episode of Jane the Virgin was filmed there; and in October 2016 an episode of the sixth season of New Girl turned the church into a school.

On January 8, 2025, the church was heavily damaged during the Palisades Fire. Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank released a video statement confirming the church was on fire and asked parishioners within the California-Pacific Annual Conference to pray for the congregation.

Additional images

• View of the grounds of the Methodist camp meeting site in Pacific Palisades; this location is now Temescal Gateway Park (Security National Pacific Bank photo collection, Los Angeles Public Library)
• A founding member of the church points out a feature of the original section of the church building (The Roberts News, 1959)

References

1. "History: The town a church started". Palisades Methodist. Pacific Palisades, California. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
2. ^ Perscoe & Bruns, Sue & Bill. "Pivotal Moments in Pacific Palisades History: The Year 1929". Circling The News. Archived from the original on 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
3. ^ Hansen, Ken (July 2, 1967). "Victim of Depression: Pacific Palisades Grew from Methodist Church Center (part 1 of 2)". The West Side. The Los Angeles Times. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-01-10. & "Pacific Palisades Was Church Community (part 2 of 2)". The Los Angeles Times. July 2, 1967. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
4. California Department of Parks and Recreation (March 1976). "California Inventory of Historic Resources". p. 193. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
5. ^ Jervey (1960), p. 64.
6. Stollman, Rita (January 13, 1972). "Methodist Minister: Early Palisades Recalled". Malibu-Topanga News. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
7. ^ Peterson, Mary (November 12, 1959). "Here Since '20s: Methodist Church Grows with Area". The Roberts News. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-01-10. & "Methodist (part 2 of 2)". The Roberts News. November 12, 1959. p. 3.
8. "Church that Built a Town". Pacific Palisades Historical Society.
9. "New Church to Be Opened". The Los Angeles Times. February 1, 1930. p. 22. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
10. Jervey (1960), p. 103.
11. Jervey (1960), p. 65.
12. Jervey (1960), p. 169.
13. Fox, Bernice (May 11, 2018). "'New Girl' Filmed at Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades". Palisades News. Retrieved 2025-01-09.
14. "PHOTOS: Powerful images show destruction from deadly Southern California fires". ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. January 8, 2025.
15. "Photos: Southland battling multiple wildfires, fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds". Los Angeles Times. January 8, 2025.
16. "Cal-Pac Fire Updates - January 8, 2025". January 8, 2025.

Sources

• Jervey, E. Drewry (1960). The History of Methodism in Southern California and Arizona. Historical Society of Southern California–Arizona Conference. Nashville: Parthenon Press. LCCN 60033247. OCLC 3314743.

Further reading

• Byrn, Harold; Johnston, Lyle (1999). A dream unfolding : a history presentation of the Methodist movement in Arizona, southern Nevada, and southeastern California now known as the Desert Southwest Conference, the United Methodist Church. Phoenix, Arizona: Desert Southwest Conference, Archives and History Commission. LCCN 00709655.

• Burned religious buildings and structures in the United States
• Christian organizations established in 1922
• Churches in Los Angeles
• Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
• United Methodist churches in California
• Buildings and structures destroyed by the January 2025 Southern California wildfires