Handley Memorial Presbyterian Church

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Handley Memorial Presbyterian Church

Handley Memorial Presbyterian Church originally Central Presbyterian Church, was a Presbyterian church founded in 1890 as an offshoot of First Presbyterian Church.

The congregation was organized by 68 founding members during a meeting at the Birmingham YMCA at 520 20th Street North on March 23, 1890. Before the end of the year, they secured a meeting house of their own, a red brick building on Block 45 at 1724 5th Avenue North, a site later used by Happy John Bollas restaurant, and now occupied by Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 7.

After founding pastor Luman Handley died in November 1910, the church was renamed in his memory on November 26, 1911. In 1915 the building on Block 45 was condemned by the city engineer. The congregation chose to merge with the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Druid Hills, which was itself laboring to raise funds for a new building.

The combined congregations began meeting in together in Westminster's 1904 building at 1305 25th Street in Druid Hills on May 16. The open lot next to the church attracted neighborhood ball games, which led to repeated broken windows. The Women's Auxiliary planted shrubbery to break up the space in 1917.

On April 26, 1921 Handley Memorial Presbyterian Church dedicated a new building on that site. During its construction, the congregation met at Temple Emanu-El at the invitation of Samuel Ullman. The new red brick building was designed in a Greek Revival style with three annexes, and had a full basement.

When the former Handley Memorial building was offered for sale in 1931 it was priced at $41,000, with the proceeds going into a "Handley Memorial Evangelistic Fund" to be invested for the benefit of the Presbytery's missionary efforts. $20,000 from that fund would be loaned to the church at 6% interest to help pay off the mortgage on the 1921 building.

W. S. Miller drafted a history of the church from a typescript compiled by the church's ladies auxiliary, which was published in the minutes of the North Alabama Presbytery on April 26, 1937, and which he read during the service on June 12, 1938.

In 1964 then-pastor David Singleton initiated a Norwood Community Ministry as an outreach to residents of the neighborhood. Some members objected to what they saw as an attempt to racially integrate the church.

The church building was heavily damaged by a fire on November 21, 1968 and subsequently demolished.

Pastors

References

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