First Presbyterian Church

Formerly known as the Old School Presbyterian Church of Elyton, the church began offering services in a small building on the northeast corner of Square Street and Morris Avenue in 1858. When the Elyton Land Company announced that it would grant churches of any denomination free lots downtown, the"Old School Presbyterian Church of Elyton" was the first to select a lot. Using wagons, they moved their building to the southwest corner of 5th Avenue and 21st Street North around 1872.

'First Presbyterian Church was built in 1888 to accommodate the church's growing congregation, and is known as the "Mother Church" of Presbyterians in Birmingham, because it helped to establish other churches in the area. Several changes occurred to the building afterwards. The first was moving the front entrance to Fourth Avenue as 21st Street North was widened. The Rushton Memorial Carillon was installed in the bell tower in 1924, one of only three in the United States at the time. It housed 25 bells weighing 8 tons. The church was remodeled in 1950 to include a new pipe organ and the Phillips Chapel installed as a memorial to Dr. John Herbert Phillips and his wife. In 1957, architects D.H. Greer and W.N. Chambers designed the addition to the education building.

References

• Satterfield, Carolyn Green (1976) "Historic Sites of Jefferson County, Alabama" Jefferson County Historical Commission