The UT Wesley Foundation began in 1922 as the campus fellowship at Church Street United Methodist Church. It moved to campus to a room in the YMCA building in 1942 and purchased the residence at 908 Temple Avenue (now Volunteer Boulevard) in 1943. That land was needed for the construction of the Philander P. Claxton Education Building, and UT exchanged 1718 Melrose Avenue for the Temple Avenue house. In 1966 the foundation broke ground for a new building on that site. The Reverend J. J. Ellington, a part-time pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Knoxville, was the first minister assigned to UT.