St. Frances Methodist Church

Historic Woodville

Preserving Woodville's Heritage



St. Frances Methodist Church

St. Frances Methodist Church
Photo taken before the moving of the church 1998

St. Frances Methodist Church was built in 1845 in Woodville from a generous $1,000 donation by Mrs. Frances Pugh and is one of the few surviving works of Thomas Bragg. This simple Greek Revival Church has an interior with fluted Doric columns carrying a curved slave gallery.
In 1896, because there were more Methodists in nearby Lewiston than in Woodville, a mule team moved the church a mile away. Its membership died out in the early 1990s and the church was deteriorating and had been vandalized.

Historic Woodville, from private and state donations, was able to move the church back to its original location in 2001, and completed the restoration in 2005.

In August 2014, the church was donated to Preservation North Carolina, then sold to the Ringeisen family to be adapted to an event venue. [see Between Cotton and Gin)



St. Frances Methodist Church Photo by Watson Brown after the move back to the original location.