The Pioneer Preacher of American Methodism purchased this house and farm from John England, Sr., on March 2, 1773, on land that was part of England's Chance and Brother's Inheritance, where he had lived for 13 years since coming to America in 1760. Here he formed the first class of Methodism: John Evans, his wife Eleanor Evans, his nephew Job Evans and Mary Evans his wife, Nancy Murphy, and Mrs. Hoy. Asbury's Journal of May 5, 1801, said, “Here Mr. Strawbridge formed the first society in Maryland and America.” The first society of Methodism included John Evans, William Durbin, Andrew Poulson, John England, William Daman, Benjamin Marcarel, George Havener, Richard Smith, Thomas Leakin, James Crawford, Robert Walker, William Snader, Thomas Donaldson, Daniel Stephenson, Philip Nicodemus, Jacob Cassell, George Logman, with their wives and some children, and later Samuel Merryman, John Todd, Alexander and Mrs. Warfield, Hezekiah Bonham, John and Paul Hagerty, and George Saxton. One hundred sixty years after Strawbridge built the log meeting house in 1764, a mile southwest, recognized as the first Methodist chapel in America, this place was identified as the birthplace of American Methodism.