Chungdong First Methodist Church stands out between taller buildings with its red brick and pointed windows. The American Methodist missionary Henry Appenzeller began worship services in Jeongdong in 1885. As the congregation grew, construction began in 1895 and the sanctuary was completed in 1897. The building applied a simplified Gothic vocabulary, while its long pews and sermon-centered services also presented an unfamiliar interior to contemporary Koreans.
A school and a church shared one founder
Appenzeller was both the educator who established Pai Chai Hakdang and the pastor who led the church. Early missionaries connected education, medicine, and publishing rather than operating them as isolated businesses. Students learned English and science at school, encountered hymns and public speech at church, and carried new knowledge and religious language into the streets through printed material.
The church attended by Yu Gwan-sun
Yu Gwan-sun worshipped here while studying at Ewha Hakdang. After the March First Movement began in 1919, she returned to her hometown near Cheonan, organized the Aunae independence demonstration, and was arrested. It would be too simple to claim that one church directed the independence movement, but the people and ideas encountered through schools and churches formed an important network nurturing young people's participation in society.
What to see when the door is closed
Services and events may limit interior access. In that case, examine the brickwork, pointed arches, and the church's position between Pai Chai and Ewha. Connect the three institutions into a triangle on the map. Jeongdong's modernization then appears not as a single building but as the movement of education, religion, and male and female students through the neighborhood.