Birmingham Churches and Their Cornerstones 102

Birmingham architect James E. Green designed this church and a few others like it in other parts of Alabama. It ingeniously combines a plan popular from the late nineteenth century with a style popular in the early twentieth and creates a monumental presence in a mid-block site.

The interior plan is “pulpit-in-the-corner,” with smaller rooms for Sunday school classes opening onto the main space, in what can be called a “modified Akron plan.” The exterior is Beaux-Arts Classical.

To date the building has served three congregations, one of which has two different names. All of three of the congregations are in the Baptist tradition. The first was initially known as Avondale Baptist Church, this is the name enshrined on the cornerstone, but for most of its history, it was know as South Avondale Baptist Church. When South Avondale closed in 2000, the building became a second campus of New Hope Baptist Church and then later, in 2014, the home of Redeemer Community Church. Though Redeemer is not affiliated with a Baptist association it is baptistic in its practice and at its inception was associated with the credo-baptist Harbor Network. For more on South Avondale’s history and pictures of the interior see Patrick Thompson’s article on Magic City Religion.

Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.

Map of Posts in this Project

This is an interactive map. Clicking on any marker will enable you to access a link to the post of the church. The type of marker corresponds to the type of cornerstone at the site. Stones with dates and at most one individual’s name, like this, are light blue. Sites where the stone has been removed, like the old Second Presbyterian building, are light gray. Click here for full information on the markers.