Postcard view of the “Methodist Cathedral” circa 1950. Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History.

…claims to be the oldest organized church in Montgomery. For 100 years it stood on the downtown site now occupied by the Federal Court and our former main Post Office under the name Court Street Methodist. The church moved to this site in the suburb of Cloverdale in 1931, when the old site was taken for the new Federal building, and the name was changed to First Methodist. While construction of their new building was ongoing, services were held at nearby Huntingdon College. Work on this complex suffered a severe setback in 1932 when a terrible gas explosion shook the neighborhood and destroyed all work completed up to that time. While services were held here in partially completed facilities, the Great Depression, and then WW II, slowed subsequent construction such that dedication of the first unit was not held until 1947.

-Charles Humphries