Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church was established in 1785, one year after the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and is one of the oldest Methodist congregations in the nation. The congregation was organized by Bishop Francis Asbury, the famed Methodist leader and evangelist, who organized this church and one in Charleston on a missionary trip to South Carolina. The church was a regional center for Methodism as the movement spread throughout South Carolina during the Second Great Awakening, a revival of Christianity that occurred in the United States in the late 18th century and early 19th century.

Among the local converts to Christianity made during Bishop Asbury's 1785 church-planting trip to South Carolina was William Wayne, a cousin of Revolutionary War hero General Anthony Wayne, who became a Methodist minister. During the Civil War, when Georgetown was temporarily occupied by Federal troops, including the 32nd and 102nd U.S. Colored Troops, the army reportedly stabled its horses in the church sanctuary. After the Civil War, Methodist members from this and other regions of the state were instrumental in establishing the African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. The first pastor of Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church was the Reverend Woolman Hickson. In 1903, the present church building replaced earlier church structures.

Site Access: Public
Access Description: Services: Sunday School 9:45am Worship 11:00 am
Average Viewing Time: 1 hour
Admission: Free
Ownership: Church