Birmingham Churches and their Cornerstones 125

First Baptist Church of Zion City was one of the many churches in Zion City, and like all of them it has moved since the community adjoins the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. The church is now at what is at least its second location outside of Zion City. The first was at 328 Robison Drive (the former Huffman Church of the Nazarene); the current one is 1104 Gene Reed Road (the former Sherwood Church of God). Like most Holiness and Pentecostal churches, these building did not have cornerstones. But First Baptist brought theirs with them from their historic site at 8800 8th Court North and has placed them in brick near the entrance of their current location.

As seen below the older stone gives not only those involved in the remodeling the stone marks, but also provides the year of the founding: 1911. This makes First Baptist, younger than the oldest church that keeps Zion City in its name: Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church of Zion City. (Both churches are members of the Mt. Pilgrim Baptist District Association and the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention. The fact that one has the word “missionary” in its name, do not mark a difference. Some churches that belong to these groups have added it to their name, others have not.)

One name appears on both this 1957 stone and on the one marking the rebuilding of the church in 1980. J. Moore was a deacon in 1957 and chairman of the deacons in 1980.

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

Map of Posts in this Project

The color and shape of the location markers indicate the character of the cornerstones at each site. Stones like these, with a scripture verse or dedicatory phrase and multiple names are and at most one person’s name are yellow. Since there are multiple stones the marker contains a square. Click here for full information on the markers.