Hunter Street Baptist Church

From Bhamwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Hunter Street Baptist Church in 2007

Hunter Street Baptist Church is a large Baptist church located on a 42-acre campus at 2600 John Hawkins Parkway in Hoover. The pastor, since 1986, is Buddy Gray.

Fifty-four charter members organized the Compton Hill Mission (soon renamed Compton Hill Baptist Church) on January 6, 1907 at the Compton Hill School on 3rd Avenue West, in Fairview near the Alabama State Fairgrounds. During the congregation's first year, a M. A. Wildsmith donated land nearby for a dedicated building. He had named the short section of Eufaula Street connecting 24th Street Ensley (also known as Hayes Avenue) to 3rd Avenue West alongside that plot "Hunter Street" in honor of his daughter, and the church took its name from the street.

By 1926, during the second tenure of pastor F. M. Bradley, the growing church had enrolled more than 700 members and had little room to operate a Sunday School. Bradley resigned and turned the pulpit over to N. O. Patterson, who in addition to preaching, had designed and built churches. He designed a new brick building to accommodate 700 worshippers and 1,000 in its Sunday School wing.

The new church was constructed at a cost of $105,000. It included a social hall with a kitchen and was equipped with a Möller church organ and a Moncrief heating and cooling system. Five hundred congregants marched from Hunter Street to 4th Court West for the dedication service on Sunday, December 2, 1928, and heard a sermon by Howard College professor Lemuel Dawson. A curtain was erected in front of the choir in 1928 to secure the modesty of the choir members who favored flapper-style skirts. In 1930 a special service honoring former pasters was followed by a basket luncheon in a nearby grove with entertainment provided by the church orchestra, the Birmingham Police Band, and a Black children's choir.

In 1939 the church reported a membership of 2,101, with Sunday School enrollment of 1,335 and Training Union enrollment of 393. In 1941 the church issued 1,000 lithographed "debt certificates", priced at $15 each, to help pay off the $35,000 in debt outstanding on its 1928 building. By the end of 1944 the church had retired its debts and reported a membership of 2,441. In 1945, led by new pastor Carl Giers, the church engaged architect E. B. Van Keuren to design a new, larger air-conditioned auditorium for 1,600 on parcels to the east of the existing church. The new sanctuary would be equipped with "hearing aids" and radio, as well as for motion pictures, and for the television sets (when they became available). The older auditorium would be renovated for use as additional education space.

Giers resigned in 1948 and was succeeded by Charles Bowles, for whom the church provided a "pastorium" at 2725 20th Place West in Bush Hills. Bowles shelved the Van Keuren plan and commissioned George P. Turner to design a 1,200 Gothic-style church building with a basement recreation center on a site across the street, and to add an education building on its existing site, at a total projected cost of $490,000. By 1951 the church had an enrollment of 2,830, and had altered its building plans to accommodate 1,400 for worship, at a projected cost of $700,000. That year the church held it's first outdoor "Starlight" revival service in a "natural amphitheater" across from the church. The Baylor Religious Choir performed at the event, with Baylor professor and "Baptist Radio Hour" host Charles Wellborn delivering the sermon. That November the church was visited by two ex-convicts, reportedly having been sent to Birmingham on behalf of a criminal organization in New York. They met with Bowles and other church leaders and made professions of faith shortly before Thanksgiving.

The church's building program advanced in phases. The new education building was constructed first, at a cost of $479,000, in a Colonial style complementing the older buildings across the street. It was dedicated on December 21, 1952. It served as a Sunday School wing with seven nurseries, numerous classrooms and assembly rooms, a library and an air-conditioned chapel. Within a few years the church also purchased the nearby Pinehurst Church of God for $40,000, to use as a youth center. At the time, the church's Sunday School had a regular attendance of 1,250 and another 575 were enrolled in a Training Union.

By 1995 the church had paid down its debt on the education building, and were ready to proceed with what was now an 1,850-seat, $500,000 auditorium facing 17th Street West. Turner, Smith & Batson prepared the revised plans. Ground was broken in October 1956, and the building was completed in 1958 at a cost of $700,000. Construction was interrupted in April 1957 when the steeple collapsed, killing ironworker J. B. Standridge. The building was dedicated during the week of June 15–22.

In the 1960s Hunter Street broadcast its Sunday services live on WAQY AM 1220. The church also had a girls' singing group called the Treblettes, which released two recordings on vinyl. Over the next two decades the church's membership declined as white families moved to Birmingham's suburbs. The church burned its note on the 1958 building debt in 1967.

In 1983 the name "Hunter Street Baptist Church" appeared in a list of donors to the re-election campaign of Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington. The publication sparked considerable confusion before it was explained that the donation came from Ralph Abernathy's church in Atlanta, Georgia, which had the same name.

In 1987 the congregation, then numbering around 200, moved to Hoover, selling its 4th Court West property to Sardis Baptist Church, which relocated from Graymont Avenue.

The church originally met at Hoover Seventh Day Adventist Church, and on March 26, 1989 opened its worship center on John Hawkins Parkway. Since 1989, the church has had 8 building projects, including a larger worship center, a recreation center, a childrens' building, a student building, as well as the Legacy Park recreation complex in Bessemer. During expansion, one of the newly-built streets leading into the complex was named Hunter Street.

Membership

  • 1907: 54
  • 1926: 700
  • 1939: 2,101
  • 1944: 2,441
  • 1987: 200
  • 2000: 3,000
  • 2005: 3,500
  • 2009: 3,500
  • 2011: 7,500
  • 2015: 3,320
  • 2018: 4,500

Pastors

References

External links

Retrieved from "http://bhamwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Hunter_Street_Baptist_Church&oldid=220690"