Qualla: Foundry United Methodist Church

Foundry United Methodist Church: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Henry Foxall watched from a hill in Georgetown as the British Army marched on Washington in August 1814. He owned the Columbia Foundry, the largest cannon-foundry in the federal city, which made it a strategic target. The British had already burned the Capitol and the White House. The foundry was next. Then the weather changed. A heavy thunderstorm rolled in off the Potomac and the British column, fearing flooded approaches and impassable powder, turned away from the foundry and marched back toward Maryland. Foxall, a devout Methodist, took the storm as divine intervention. He vowed to build a church in gratitude. He kept the vow. The church he founded in 1814 still stands, on different ground than the original, with a different building, but with the same name: Foundry.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Foundry United Methodist Church: The Ironmaster's Vow

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bonnachoven, CC0. Henry Foxall was an English immigrant, an associate of Francis Asbury, the founder of American Methodism, and a lay preacher himself in addition to running the Columbia Foundry. After the thunderstorm of 1814 spared his foundry, he donated land and funds at 14th and G Streets NW ...

Image: Bonnachoven | CC0

Foundry United Methodist Church: Lincoln at the Pew

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit APK, CC BY-SA 4.0. On January 18, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln attended a service at Foundry just after he had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The visiting preacher was Bishop Matthew Simpson, an Indiana Methodist who was raising money for missionary work and who would later deliver the eu...

Image: APK | CC BY-SA 4.0

Foundry United Methodist Church: Christmas with Churchill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 3.0. The current Foundry building at 1500 16th Street NW opened on February 28, 1904, after the original congregation merged with the Fifteenth Street Methodist Church and built a larger structure on land between Dupont Circle and downtown. The congregation's most famous wartime momen...

Image: AgnosticPreachersKid | CC BY-SA 3.0

Foundry United Methodist Church: The Clintons and the Welcome

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0. In 1993, Foundry welcomed Bill and Hillary Clinton as members. The Clintons attended services about half the weekends they were in Washington during the eight years of the presidency, walking in through the side entrance with Secret Service protection. The senior minister at the ...

Image: ajay_suresh | CC BY 4.0

Foundry United Methodist Church: Pipes and Voices

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dmitry K, CC BY 2.0. Foundry's music program is one of the most active among Washington congregations. The 55-voice Foundry Choir was selected to lead the opening communion service of the 1984 United Methodist General Conference, which marked the bicentennial of Methodism in America. The church organ...

Image: Dmitry K | CC BY 2.0