Sandstone Chapel Built by an Appalachian Coal Baron
325 Third Street, Paintsville, KY 41240
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit as an active church during regular services and open hours
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved, flat
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1908 · National Register of Historic Places · Coal Era Philanthropy · Appalachian Methodist History
Construction of Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church began in 1908 at the urging of John Caldwell Calhoun Mayo, a Paintsville attorney who had accumulated substantial wealth by purchasing coal rights across eastern Kentucky before the arrival of the railroads. Mayo was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South of Paintsville and pledged to pay half the estimated $10,000 construction cost.
The site changed during planning. Mayo initially donated a corner lot at Church and Third Streets before purchasing an alternative site from C.B. Wheeler at the corner of Third and Court Streets — the church's current location. The building material was native sandstone, quarried and shaped at the farm of Thomas Jefferson Mayo, John's father, which lay across Paint Creek from town. The stones were transported to the construction site using the same aerial tram Mayo had built to construct his mansion nearby.
The church's interior reflects Mayo's resources and ambitions. The stained glass windows were imported from Italy. The organ was donated by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. John C.C. Mayo died on May 11, 1914, before the church was fully completed in the years that followed his death.
Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 26, 1989, recognized for its association with the Mayo family and its role in the development of Paintsville as the economic center of Johnson County.
Sources
The paranormal lore attached to Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church centers on a single figure. Witnesses over the years have reported a woman seen kneeling or sitting in the chapel late at night — a posture that places her directly within the devotional character of the space John Mayo built.
The figure is consistently identified in local tradition as Alice Jane Meek Mayo, John's wife, for whom the mansion nearby was also constructed. Alice moved to Ashland after John's 1914 death and donated the mansion to Sandy Valley Seminary before eventually suing to reclaim it. She died in Ashland on September 5, 1961. The hauntings, in this telling, represent not unfinished tragedy but ongoing devotion — a presence that returns to a building her husband built as an act of faith.
Separate from the visual reports, accounts describe soft whispering and humming emanating from the sanctuary during nighttime hours, heard by passersby and, according to the Shadowlands Index, by people in the immediate vicinity of the chapel. The sounds stop when approached.
Because the church remains an active congregation, access for late-night observation is not available to general visitors. The legend circulates primarily through regional paranormal blogs and Johnson County oral tradition.
Notable Entities
Explore the 1908 native sandstone exterior of Mayo Memorial United Methodist Church, whose Italian-imported stained glass windows and Andrew Carnegie-donated organ reflect the ambitions of Kentucky's first coal baron. The church is still active — visit during open hours or attend a service.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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