Avondale United Methodist Church
Saturday, September 04, 2010
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Church History One hundred fifteen years ago, on a Saturday night before the dedication of a new church called First Methodist Episcopal Church South at Avondale, Alabama, it rained. Fifth Avenue was a muddy thoroughfare, the deep ditches on each side of the street overflowed, water ran under the new building, the buggies and wagons cut deep ruts in the soft road out front. But as the women readied the new church for the Sunday’s service, the gaslights spread a soft glow over the papered walls and the oak pews and pulpit, and on the faces of the busy women was the flow of pride that no weather could erase. Perhaps they spoke of the Avondale Land Company that had given the property for this building, the generosity of Mr. Roden, its president. Perhaps they spoke of the signing of the deed by the trustees of the new church. Most of their husbands had signed that deed. Mr. Arthur W. Smith, Mr. Reese, Mr. W.A. Rickett, Mr. F.B. Daniel and Mr. Daniel T. Smith. Perhaps they stopped to look at the church register. They could not dream so far into the future. As it was they were happy. They had done a good work, the Church was ready. Bishop John Keener would be there to dedicate the Church on the morrow. The appointed pastor, Rev. Ferguson would say the first public prayer uttered in this holy place.
The day dawned crisp and bright. The Drennen Bell tolled out over the community. It was beginning; the long path into history was under way. The people gathered, the men in silk shirts and store bought clothes, the women in silk and maline and high-buttoned shoes. They left their footprints not just in the clay earth around the new building but in Avondale Methodist Church, the footprints that we today follow. The pump organ gave out with the opening chords of “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and the crowded house came to life in song and praise.
From that day on the Church grew. The Ladies Aid Society, the forerunner of the Woman’s Society of Christian Service, was organized in 1891. Then, as now, the society set out to help the Church. The ice cream parties, the box suppers and silver teas painted the church, furnished the parsonage, installed more Bailey lights with silver reflectors and bought the pastor a bicycle. The Society’s work was never done. In 1893 the Epworth League was organized. This is today the Methodist Youth Fellowship.
With the continuous growth of the Church in early 1900 the need for larger facilities was apparent. By 1913 a definite step had to be taken. The little white Church was literally bursting at the seams. The Men’s Bible Class had an enrollment of 188 members in 1913. By 1916 the membership was 250. The class had moved into Griffin’s Hall, the second story of Mr. Warren Griffin’s store building. James Arthur Smith was the teacher. The home department of the Sunday School had 200 members in 1914. This department organized a class called the Firemen’s Class. Mr. Sam Frey taught this class at the fire station every Sunday morning. The members could foresee the possibilities of a great church. The search for a location was started. A building committee was elected. Daniel Smith headed the list and his helpers were William Starbuck, Elmer Thuston, Warren Griffin, Sam Frey, Ferdinand Smith, J.E. Colvin, P.L. Waler, G.C. Smith and Harry Passmore, Jr. The lot chosen was on the corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue South facing Avondale Park and the Carnegie Library. From the minutes of 1917 I quote, “Lots were purchased from Mr. and Mrs. George Hays for the new building. The location is really wonderful in its aptness and its beauty. It is at the center of the population to be served; the honorable community which now embraces Forest Park and the great and growing section toward the mountain. We are fortunate to have procured such a site.”
 The present educational unit was begun in 1922 and completed in 1925. On Easter Sunday in 1927 a campaign was started to raise the money to build the Sanctuary. Despite the depression years, it was completed in 1931 and free of debt by 1940. After years of planning, construction on the Family Recreation Center was begun on September 24, 1972. Construction was completed in 13 months and it was cleared of indebtedness in May of 1987. The late 1980's also saw renovations to the Nursery and Kindergarten facilities, rebuilding of the historical Skinner pipe organ, placement of protective coverings over the stained glass windows, and the purchase of a new parsonage at 4248 Overloook Drive to replace the older residence purchased in 1943. In 2004 - 2005, the church restored the hard wood floors throughout the 1st and 2nd floor common areas, added a ladies restroom on the 1st floor and refurnished the parlor.
Through the long years of service the church has had forty-one ministers. The physical size of these men and women has varied from scarcely five feet to six feet four. But they have all been servants of God, dedicated to the building of the Kingdom on earth. It is impossible to name every person who has helped to make possible this place of worship. It is said that every man who so much as walks through a house of God leaves a part of himself there, so to the 8,424 persons that have at one time or another belonged to Avondale Methodist Church we owe our heritage, it has been built by all.
The Church looks back on the years with loving memory of those who have gone before and the church looks forward to this new era with high hope of those who shall walk this way in the days to come. Let us always remember: “That except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who built it.”
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