1914 - Alberta Gary Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, Columbia, MD
In January 1871, Edward and Emily Spedden donated land, known as "the old Patterson farm," for a church. They stipulated that, if a building was not erected within two years, the donation would be void and the land would return to the Spedden family. While meetings were held on the land immediately after its donation, the trustees of the land began looking for funding to build a church. The major employer in the area was the Guilford cotton mill, owned by James Albert Gary (1833-1920). Gary learned of the effort to build a church on the Patterson farm, and made a large contribution to the effort, with one request: it be named for his late daughter, Alberta G. Gary, who had died at the age of five. The full name of the church, then, became "The Alberta G. Gary Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church." The first church building on the site was completed in 1872. The current "new church" was built in 1914.
