on E South Boulevard at Narrow Lane Road, is headquarters for most of the State’s Baptist adherents. The original structure (left end) was put up in 1962, and the right half was added in 1997. Before that, Baptist headquarters was located downtown on South Court (opposite the bus station), then on South Perry. In 1962, everyone thought Montgomery would grow south. Before 1913, the Baptist State Convention was located over in Greene County (where I grew up), near Greensboro (before that part became Hale County), where it had been formed in 1823. While over there, the Convention founded Judson College for women, and then Howard College for men. Howard was later moved to Birmingham, where it became Sanford University. Part of the Howard faculty refused to move to B’ham, and that group started Marion Military Institute. The Baptists were a busy bunch. This well kept office building, supported by the adjacent Baptist Hospital South, constitutes a vital anchor for Montgomery’s SW corner, as the city struggles to push back its line of decay.

-Charles Humphries