Our Story

Wesley House Community Center was established in 1907 in Knoxville, Tennessee by three United Methodist Women groups. These hard-working mothers were at the cotton mill to support their families, and therefore their children were lacking supervision during the day. The UMW recognized this need and thus created the Wesley House. Since then, our organization has been providing after school and summer camp services for Knoxville’s most under-resourced and marginalized communities. In the 1950s, Wesley House saw another need in the community, this one being for senioir citizens who were experiencing social isolation. To assist these members of the community, the Wesley House provides our Senior Citizen Support program which supports senior citizens in the Lonsdale, Beaumont, Mechanicsville, and East Knoxville communities. Finally, in 2020, Wesley House continued to expand their service to the community by establishing the Emerging Needs program to provide local citizens with food and clothes from our Red Bird Community Store.