Exploring Montgomery

The storytelling continues… a collection of stories and photos from Exploring Montgomery!

Religious

“I can’t imagine worshipping anywhere else. There is so much history, so much strength built into this church.”- Maria Thomas, Head Secretary of Old Ship A.M.E. Zion Church Old Ship African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is the oldest African-American church in the city of Montgomery. The church’s beginning dates way […]

Old Ship African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

June 22, 2018 in Religious tagged ame / aum media writing / church / old ship / zion

Was constructed in 1947 as the fulfillment of a dream of the small, industrious Greek community which had immigrated to Montgomery over the previous 70 years, struggling to make their way in a strange new land. This effort, delayed by years of depression and war, was finally secured thru the […]

Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

May 11, 2018 in Religious tagged church / greek / orthodox

The original Whitfield Memorial Methodist Church . . . at 2000 Woodley Road, now a Christian Science Church. It was built in the early 1950s, but less than a decade later Whitfield decided its site was too small and too close to First Methodist, so it relocated out onto Fisk […]

Whitfield Memorial Methodist Church

March 2, 2018 in Religious tagged church / methodist / whitfield

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter . . . at 2911 Woodley Road, anchors the Southern tip of the triangular shaped Gay Meadows subdivision, almost touching Southern Boulevard. The church was carefully crafted to resemble its former Carpenter Gothic home in the once elegant Cottage Hills District. The Holy […]

Holy Comforter

February 19, 2018 in Religious tagged church / comforter / episcopal / holy

at 5260 Vaughn Road, was established in 1950 as an outreach of First Baptist. During its early years on Cleveland Avenue the church enjoyed phenomenal growth; in 1958 it led the State in Baptisms. During the 1960s its congregation moved East and membership declined. In 1975 Ridgecrest Church made the […]

Ridgecrest Baptist Church

November 17, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / ridgecrest

at 2514 Madison Avenue, on the corner of its intersection with Ann Street. The church was founded in 1934, and this Greek Revival sanctuary was completed in 1937, a remarkable achievement, considering that the Depression was going strong during those years. Carl Cooper (Berney Walters’ uncle) was architect. -Charles Humphries

Capitol Heights Baptist Church

November 3, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / capitol heights / church

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 […]

Alabama Baptist Convention

October 30, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / convention

Here you see the St. James United Methodist Church of yore, which faces South Court Street, and is the antecedent of the St. James United Methodist that stands today on Vaughn Road at its Ryan intersection. In the center you see the old St. James Sunday School wing, mother of […]

St. James United Methodist Church

October 27, 2017 in Religious tagged church / methodist / st james

The Aldersgate United Methodist Church (nee Forest Avenue Methodist) at 6610 Vaughn Road. Its first unit there was built in 1975, and its sanctuary (pictured) was erected in 1998. Aldersgate boasts a membership of 1600. Located adjacent to St. James High School. -Charles Humphries

Aldersgate United Methodist Church

October 20, 2017 in Religious tagged aldersgate / church / methodist

located on the SW corner where Calhoun deads into Pelzer Avenue. It was organized in 1949, and by 1955 it had already completed two substantial building projects. Its present Greek Revival sanctuary was dedicated in 1965. All this was accomplished under the leadership of the renowned Reverend Louis Armstrong, who […]

Morningview Baptist Church

October 13, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / church / morningview

located in the Forest Hills subdivision (takes a map to find it), was a 1950s outreach of Capitol Heights Baptist. Today it is one of the largest churches in our city. Its sanctuary was built in 1965, as one step in a 30 year client relationship forged by my partner, […]

Eastern Hills Baptist Church

October 6, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / church / eastern hills

at 5780 Vaughn Road, started as a dream in 1991 when Trinity Presbyterian member, Ida Belle Young, donated 40 acres of her meadowland for the purpose of starting a new church. Two years later the church was organized, and its first worship service was held in the Trinity School Cafeteria. […]

Young Meadows Presbyterian Church

September 29, 2017 in Religious tagged church / presbyterian / young meadows

at 1803 Mulberry, was founded in the 1940s, and was thriving when this sanctuary was built in 1956. It was the last job done by WMP, my business partner of neigh 50 years, before he and I left our former employer to start our own practice. At that time, the […]

Forest Park Baptist Church

September 22, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / church / forest park

located on the NW corner of the 5-Points formed by the Fairview, Cloverdale Rd-Woodley intersection. It was founded ca 1932, and its first building faced Fairview. The church closed its doors some 80 years later, and the structure is slated to become the Cloverdale Playhouse, which will feature amateur theater […]

Cloverdale Christian Church

September 15, 2017 in Religious tagged church / cloverdale

Behold the remnant of the once grand Circuit City Store . . . at 500 Eastdale Loop (behind Max Credit Union). The Eastdale store opened with great fanfare circa 1990, a wonderland of electronic magic, with plenty of clerks, all real computer geeks with whom you could discuss a purchase. Circuit […]

Old Circuit City Store

July 10, 2017 in Commercial / Religious tagged circuit city / eastdale / ncc / safe harbor

At the intersection of South Court and our derelict Southern Boulevard. Fifty years ago there was no Interstate route thru Montgomery, and this was the highway travel path. Montgomery’s center of commercial and construction activity was along this strip, and the “88” was the keenest structure in the area. It […]

88 Building

July 3, 2017 in Commercial / Religious tagged 88 / good news ministries

Out on the Mobile Highway, primarily a men’s shelter and outreach for and to the poor and homeless in Montgomery. It serves 1200 meals a week, and provides shelter to over 75/night. The “residents” prepare and deliver meals to the homeless throughout the city. The Mission is Presbyterian (PCA) affiliated […]

Friendship Mission

June 9, 2017 in Religious tagged friendship / homeless / mission / presbyterian / shelter

It was founded in the early 1920s, positioned midway between the then mature Highland Avenue neighborhoods (made possible by the electric streetcar), and the new suburb of Cloverdale (made possible by the availability of the automobile). In 1930 it was called Mulberry St Presbyterian, and was listed as one of […]

Oak Park Presbyterian Church

May 19, 2017 in Religious tagged oak / park / presbyterian

Nee Ridgecrest Baptist, sits at 3703 Rosa Parks Avenue (which in the long ago was named Cleveland Avenue and was part of a fashionable neighborhood). This sanctuary was built in 1966 as part of Ridgecrest Baptist, which moved itself out onto the Vaughn Road ca 1975. Thus, for the past […]

Beulah Baptist Church

May 15, 2017 in Religious tagged baptist / beulah

St Peters — The site of the traditional Red Mass, started by Alabama Chief Justice Howell Helfin in 1973, and held every year to mark the beginning of the new judicial year. In 1834 a wood frame church was built here at the corner of Adams and Lawrence, and there was conducted the […]

Saint Peter’s Church

May 5, 2017 in Religious tagged catholic / peter / romanesque revival / saint / spanish colonial

Grace Episcopal Church — The much revered Grace Episcopal Church . . . out on the Pike Road near Mt. Meigs, a mile or two South of I-85. The Church was founded circa 1858. However, while this nice Carpenter Gothic style structure was designed by Pennsylvania architect Joseph Pierson in 1861, soon after the […]

Grace Episcopal Church

March 10, 2017 in Religious tagged church / episcopal / flowers / gardens / gothic / grace

Crump Community — was opened in the late 1970s as the Highland Ave Adult Center, and renamed for Muriel Crump ca 1994. Before 1975 the building was the Highland Ave Church of Christ, and had been that since it was built in the 1920s. Sad to say, this facility was recently closed, and […]

Crump Community Center

October 14, 2016 in Commercial / Education / Religious tagged community / crump / highland

St James Holt Crossing — located where Carter Hill, Vaughn and Zelda all intersect. It has existed at this crossroad since it was organized in 1875. However, the building pictured was built in 1963 as administrative offices of the Alabama Masonic Lodge. The design won an Alabama AIA award for my partner, WMP. In 2004 […]

St. James Holt Crossing Baptist Church

August 8, 2016 in Religious tagged baptist / church / crossing / holt / james

John Knox — at 4401 Narrow Lane Road, opened in 1970 as a new concept in elder-care. It was built by the East Alabama Presbytery, using some kind of Federal grant, offering “Christian care” assisted living apartments for retired people. A highly rated skilled nursing facility was added in 1976, and a dementia […]

John Knox Manor

June 3, 2016 in Commercial / Religious tagged elder / john / knox / manor

Dexter Avenue King Memorial — …stands near the head of Dexter Avenue, only one block from the State Capitol. Its design is simplified Victorian Gothic, and it was built in 1899 amidst much controversy over the placement of a “Colored Church” on the city’s main street. Today it is widely heralded as Montgomery’s most famous […]

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church

May 13, 2016 in Religious tagged baptist / church / dexter / king / memorial / victorian gothic

Dexter Avenue Methodist — This grand old church, now an outpost of River City Church, was completed in 1900, when it had a bell chamber and steeple on its street corner tower. A lightening strike did away with that, leaving the Romanesque building with an incomplete feeling. My partner, WMP, attended there, and […]

Dexter Avenue Methodist Church

May 2, 2016 in Religious tagged dexter / methodist / river city / romanesque

boyleston UMC — on Johnson Avenue stands opposite the many monuments, artillery pieces and historic tablets that were erected in the median to commemorate the one-time Camp Sheridan. I’ve been told that the church, which looks entirely too large for any other existence, served as the chapel for the camp and the Buckeye […]

Boyleston United Methodist Church

April 4, 2016 in Religious tagged boyleston / church / methodist