In November, 1771, Francis Asbury, called the farmers together at the house of Peter Van Pelt which became the birthplace of the Methodist church on Staten Island. In May of 1787, a meeting was called for the purpose of establishing the Woodrow Methodist Church.
The first church in this site was built of wood, smaller than the present building. In 1842 that church was struck by lightning. The building was torn down, and the materials sold to many of the worshipers. That same year the present church was built on the same site. It was located with the front facing the road. On December 25th of 1842 it was dedicated.
Woodrow United Methodist Church at 1109 Woodrow Road in Woodrow, Staten Island, New York is a wood-frame, clapboard-sided, temple-form Greek Revival style building. It features a portico with four Doric order columns supporting a plain entablature and unadorned pediment. Above the portico is a three-stage, open bell tower and spire in a vernacular Italianate style added in 1876. It is the oldest Methodist Church on Staten Island.
In 1850 two acres of land were purchased for a parsonage site. The parsonage was built in that same year. A frame structure was built in 1884 as a meeting hall. This was on the easterly side of the church. The hall burned in the fire of April, 1963, which leveled Staten Island’s South Shore. In 1971 the church hall was rebuilt.
The burial grounds surrounding the church are older than the church organization. The oldest grave site known to be used is marked with a tombstone dated 1767.
On December 1, 1976 the Wesley Methodist Church, and the South Shore Presbyterian Church which had been meeting in Eltingville, on Richmond Avenue, and the Woodrow United Methodist Church merged in a decision to become one church and to meet at the Woodrow location.
United States National Historical place and in 1967 it was registered as a New York City Landmark.