History of GSUMC

History and Past Services of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church of Silver Spring

During the years immediately following the end of World War II, the area north of the District of Columbia along the New Hampshire Ave / Colesville Road / Georgia Avenue corridors experienced a period of exceptional growth.  By mid-1950 it became apparent to the leaders of Marvin Memorial Methodist Church, then the principal Methodist Church serving the area and still located at Four Corners (intersection of US 29 and Colesville Road) that the facilities of MMC would soon be inadequate to support this growing population.

The obvious solution was to establish a new Methodist congregation and to this end a building site selection committee was appointed in July 1950. Through the assistance of Dr. Phillip C. Edwards, then District Superintendent of the Washington East District, the Washington Methodist Union, in February 1953, provided $20,000 for the purchase of 2.296 acres of the Sheffres property on the crest of a hill at New Hampshire Avenue and Oakview Drive.

Awaiting the day when the fledgling congregation could build, Good Shepherd began with a temporary home in the social hall on the upper floor of the Hillandale Fire Station on October 4, 1953.  Dr. Edwards officiated at our first service.  Sixteen people were present.  Dr. Edwards and Chaplain Heather alternated in preaching until our first minister, Gordon C. Keesee, Jr., was appointed.

In less than three years, the congregation grew to one hundred and fifty members and, on Palm Sunday, March 25, 1956, it consecrated its first building, T. Lamar Jackson Hall.  Mr. Jackson had been an area farmer and businessman and a member of the old Mt. Pisgah Church until the 1920’s.  (Years later, this “yellow cottage” property was repurchased from Mr. Philip Rovner. ) 

Soon after the construction of Jackson Hall the residence adjacent to and south of the Church was acquired in April 1956.  It was used as a parsonage through June 1987, thereafter, rented, and eventually sold in 1997. Following six years of steady growth, the friendly and talented congregation, many employeed in State and Federal Government, numbered more than 600 members and was ready to build its sanctuary, consecrated on March 17, 1963.  The social hall beneath the sanctuary was named Lewis Memorial Fellowship Hall in honor of a large group of mature members who transferred from Lewis Memorial Methodist Church in Washington D.C. when that church was sold.  The former sanctuary and social hall in Jackson Hall were divided into classrooms and offices.

In July 1973, in addition to a new pipe organ, Good Shepherd purchased the Pisgah Hill House (on the corner of Mt. Pisgah Road / Oakview Drive) to be used as a meeting and residence facility. After Mr. Rovner’s death, his cottage, next to the “Hill” house, was purchased by the Church in July 1998.  Some of the proceeds from the sale of the former parsonage were applied to repairs necessary to bring the cottage up to current code for use as transitional housing in partnership with the Silver Spring Interfaith Housing Coalition.  (See Story of the Yellow Cottage.) 

In November 2005, the church voted to proceed with the proposed building project to construct a new entrance off Mt. Pisgah Road, inclusive of a lift, handicap accessible restrooms, new foyer, and other amenities. Concurrently, the church voted to improve the HVAC system and to replace and relocate the church message board along New Hampshire Avenue.  

In 2023 the pews were sanded and re-stained in a sanctuary-wide refresh. On October 1, 2023, GS held a 70th Anniversary service.