Historic church near downtown Lexington to close after 110 years
After 110 years, a historic church near downtown Lexington is closing its doors.
Cramer & Hanover Church of Christ will hold its last regular worship service at 11 a.m. Sunday, and a final service and reception will be held at 3 p.m. that day.
Tim Smith, the church’s treasurer, said attendance had dwindled in recent years, to about 15 on a typical Sunday morning, and the church ultimately decided to sell its large gray stone building on North Hanover Avenue.
“We’ve just been struggling to keep going,” Smith said.
The church, like many others, struggled to regain its previous attendance numbers after pausing in-person worship services during the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith said.
And, he said, just one week after the shutdown for the pandemic, the church’s minister of 45 years, Bennie Hill, died unexpectedly.
“We had a hard time getting through that,” Smith said.
In the years since then, Smith said the church has been without a full-time preacher. Men from the congregation have stepped in to fill the pulpit, and guest preachers have filled in as well.
Cramer & Hanover is believed to be the oldest Church of Christ in Lexington, based on census data. It is an independent non-denominational congregation known for its a cappella singing.
The congregation was formed in 1915 when a young couple couldn’t find a Church of Christ to worship at in Lexington, and they initially met in members’ homes.
Historical documents indicate that work on the building at the corner of Cramer and Hanover avenues began in 1932, on property that had once been owned by John W. McGarvey.
McGarvey was a professor at what is now Lexington Theological Seminary, a Lexington minister and a leader in the Restoration Movement, which traces its roots to the early 1800s in Central Kentucky and gave rise to three distinct religious groups: the Disciples of Christ, Independent Christian churches and Churches of Christ (a cappella).
Smith said he did not know for sure how the property would be used after it is sold.
While Cramer & Hanover Church of Christ will no longer meet, Smith said the church’s missions office, the Church of Christ Worldwide, will continue to support mission work around the world.
“We plan to continue that program even though the building’s being sold,” he said.
Adele Hill grew up attending church at Cramer and Hanover, where her grandfather, Homer Rutherford, was minister from 1932 to 1970.
Hill’s husband, Bennie Hill, served as minister from 1975 to 2020.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said of the church closing. “I don’t know where the Lord’s going to lead me, but I know I’ll have peace when he does.”
She said the final service Sunday is “not something you want to celebrate. But the memories: nothing can take them away.”
