The First Methodist Church began serving the Boise area in 1872. The original church property was located at 8th Street and Bannock. The congregation was 43 strong with a Sunday School attendance of 50.
The original church met the needs of the congregation for 19 years. By the end of 1902, with a growing need for space, the decision was made to move to 10th Street and State. A second church was erected on that site.
The current church building, the "Cathedral of the Rockies" at 11th Street and Franklin, began as a building program in the late 1950s, and opened its doors for worship on December 18, 1960.
The "Cathedral" as you see it today was built in 1960. Shaped like a cross, the building itself is designed in a "cruciform" style, and is a modern adaptation of the traditional gothic cathedrals of Europe. This includes the inclusion of many beautifully wrought stained glass windows which were designed and created by the craftsmen at Willet Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From the earliest times, stained glass windows have been used to tell the story of Christianity. This is particularly true of the windows in the Cathedral. They serve not only as artistic representations to enrich and beautify the building, but, more importantly, they are design to teach present and future generations the message and lessons of the Faith.
The Cathedral's mosaic windows are made up of pieces of colored glass held together by strips of grooved lead, which in turn are reinforced by iron bars securely anchored to the window frame. Features such as folds of drapery, ornament and texture are painted on the glass with dark pigment, which is permanently fused into it by intense heat. Each piece of glass has been carefully chosen from the choicest hand blown pot-metal glasses and from Norman slabs of great thickness. The result is, upon entering the sanctuary, the eye of the beholder is filled with the glory of color produced by the light passing through these myriad pieces of glass which make a vibrant jewel-like effect.
