Ensley First United Methodist Church
Ensley First United Methodist Church was a United Methodist Church located at the corner of 20th Street and Avenue G in Ensley.
The church started as a mission of Martin Memorial Methodist Church in Wylam in 1896. W. E. Morris served as pastor and the congregation met in a small frame building.
As early as 1910 the church's building committee began working with architect R. H. Hunt of Chattanooga, Tennessee to prepare plans for a larger building. A new light-gray brick Romanesque-Revival style church was erected in 1913, accommodating a membership of more than 900 people. A brick education building was constructed next to the church in 1927.
Ensley First United Methodist Church hosted the North Alabama Methodist Conference in 1923, 1933 and 1941. After World War II membership declined. By the 1980s average attendance had fallen to just over 100 people, most of them elderly.
The building now houses the Soul's Harbor Deliverance Center.
Pastors
- W. E. Morris, 1896-
- G. W. Reed, 1903
- B. B. Glasgow, 1910s
- G. E. Boyd, 1910s
- W. J. Mansfield, 1920s
- Reagin Brown, 1980s
References
- "The Building Committee of Methodist Church Meets Tonight To Discuss Plans" (July 10, 1908) The Birmingham Age-Herald, p. 5
- Schnorrenberg, John M. (2000) Aspiration: Birmingham's Historic House of Worship. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society ISBN 0943994268