Lake Toxaway United Methodist Church

In 1896 Pennsylvania industrialist J.F. Hayes and his fellow stockholders created The Toxaway Company for the purpose of building and developing fine resorts in Transylvania and Jackson counties.  At that time there were no church buildings in upper Transylvania County.  Spiritual needs were met by itinerant preachers, circuit riders and camp meetings at a site located about eight miles west of Rosman.  The camp site was on the banks of the Toxaway River about one-half mile south of the present church location.  In 1901 Hayes dammed the Toxaway River and flooded 540 acres of bottom land to create a resort lake.  The Methodist camp meeting site disappeared beneath the waters of the new Lake Toxaway.

In 1912 Edward H. Jennings, who now owned Lake Toxaway donated acreage for the purpose of building a Methodist church.  Originally called Methodist Episcopal Church South, the building was constructed using donated pine lumber and building supplies and volunteer labor of men from the 140-year-old farming community known as Toxaway.   

In 1980, the Lake Toxaway Company deeded additional land for construction of a fellowship hall, parking area and driveway access from Cold Mountain Road. 

When the church was built membership was composed of farming families.  Today the congregation consists mainly of residents of Lake Toxaway Estates.

The church, with its original weatherboard, Gothic-arched windows and six-sided belfry, is one of the most stylish and best preserved of the small historic churches of traditional frame construction surviving in the county.  It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1993.