Birmingham Churches and their Cornerstones 123

Lakewood Baptist Church is located in the South East Lake neighborhood of Birmingham Alabama. The congregation’s current and former buildings stretch along the length of 83rd Street between 8th Avenue South and 9th Avenue South.

The older building faces 8th Avenue South. The brickwork shows it once had a taller entrance, more befitting the welcoming front door of a church. The building bears a cornerstone in unique block lettering dated December 14, 1941.

A local newspaper reported on June 28, 1941, that the building would cost approximately $18,000 and that the congregation anticipated beginning to hold services in the building by September 15. It also showed the taller entrance and a colonial-revival tower and spire midway back on the side of the building.

The tower does not appear to have been built, but in the 1960s (or perhaps early 1970s), a striking modern A-frame building was erected at the other end of the block facing 9th Avenue North. Like most post-war Southern Baptist churches in Birmingham, it does not have a cornerstone.

This newer building is now the home not only of Lakewood, but of Citizens Church, a congregation begun in 2019 that meets on the lower level.

The older church building became the home of the Family Worship Center. Its sign outside the buidling indicates that it was founded in 1997. In addition from 2015 to 2022 the building was the home of Banks Academy, a private Christian high school.

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

Map of Posts in this Project

Each site in this project is mapped below. Clicking on an icon will bring up a box with a link to the post on the site. Please use it to browse the collection. The color and shape of the location markers indicate the character of the cornerstones at each site. Stones like this with just church names and dates are blue. Click here for full information on the icons.