Hunter Street Baptist Church

Hunter Street Baptist Church is a 7,500 member Baptist church with a sprawling 42-acre campus at 2600 John Hawkins Parkway in Hoover. The pastor, since 1986, is Buddy Gray.

Hunter Street Baptist was organized as the Compton Hill Mission, and then Compton Hill Baptist Church in 1907 at the Compton Hill School on 3rd Avenue West in Ensley.

Soon the congregation built their own church building at Hunter Street and 24th Street on the east edge of Ensley. The property was donated by a Mr Wildsmith, whose daughter Hunter gave both the street and the church its name.

It later moved a few blocks to 1614 4th Court West in Bush Hills, where church buildings were erected across the street from each other in 1928 and 1957. After the church left, Hunter Street reverted to its original name, Eufala Avenue.

Construction of the 1957 building was marred by a fatal accident when the steeple collapsed, killing an iron worker. A curtain was erected in front of the choir in 1928 to secure the modesty of the choir members who favored flapper-style skirts.

In the 1960s Hunter Street had a girls' singing group called the Treblettes, which released two recordings on vinyl. Over the next two decades the church's membership declined as white families moved to Birmingham's suburbs.

In 1987 the congregation, then numbering around 200, moved to Hoover, selling its 4th Court West property to Sardis Baptist Church, which relocated from Graymont Avenue.

References

• Ellaby, Liz (September 16, 2007) "Hunter Street Baptist looks back 50 years, then imagines future." Birmingham News.
• Ellaby, Liz (January 21, 2007) Hunter Street Baptist salutes 100 years of life." Birmingham News.
• Collins, Clarice Harrell, Lettie Johnson Riser and Arthur Lonzo Walker, Jr (1982) Forward in Faith: from Compton Hill Mission to Hunter Street Baptist Church, 1894-1971. Birmingham: Hunter Street Baptist Church.
• Winslett, Emily (March 21, 2004) "Faith on 42 Acres: A visit to the Hunter Street Baptist Church." Covering Religion: The Soul of the South. Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. - accessed January 21, 2007

External link

• Hunter Street Baptist Church website