Trinity Presbyterian Church (Eastwood)
- This article is about the former church on Montevallo Road, for the church in Cahaba Heights, see Trinity Presbyterian Church
Trinity Presbyterian Church (formerly Woodlawn Prebyterian Church) was a Presbyterian church founded in 1888 at the home of founding pastor James Fulton at 6021 2nd Avenue South. In the early 1890s the congregation built a church building on land donated by William Fulton at 7 60th Street South. A Sunday School room was added in 1904.
In 1913 Woodlawn Presbyterian merged with First Avenue Presbyterian Church and moved into a new building at 5624 1st Avenue North. A three-story educational building was added on the east side in 1949. Huffman Presbyterian Church was formed in 1956 by several former members.
In the 1960s, the congregation's long-range planning committee put forward a proposal to rebuild the entire church plant in several stages, beginning with the 1913 sanctuary. Turner & Batson was commissioned to design a new $200,000 sanctuary at ground level to be more accessible to older members, with a planned completion in 1967. At the same time assistant pastor Douglas Slagel was hired to expand the church's youth program with outreach to the adjoining Woodlawn High School, as well as a nursery and kindergarten for low-income families in the neighborhood.
The church moved to a 3.1-acre lot at 4565 Montevallo Road near Eastwood Mall in 1971. Architect Edgar Batson designed the church's modern-style brick building with a folded-plate roof. In its resolution approving the move, the Presbytery explained that the church's surroundings had, "changed in recent years from a neighborhood composed mostly of private homes and stable families to one dominated by commercial activity and rental facilities for more transient people with little interest in the immediate area," and referred to the, "breaking up of the old Woodlawn neighborhood," thanks to new shopping centers and interstates.
A second planned move, to Greystone, caused division in the congregation, and was not carried out.
By 2013 the church's membership had dwindled to 33. Trinity closed in June 2014 and its property reverted to the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley. Its last pastor was Rick Jones.
Pastors
- James Fulton, 1888-
- A. G. Doak, 1893-1898
- J. G. Snedicor, 1899-1902
- C. C. Weaver, 1903-1904
- W. J. Caldwell, 1906-1920
- Roy Hershey, 1920-1926
- T. O. Perrin, 1927-1929
- William Thorington, 1930-1941
- G. Roland Sims, 1942-1945
- John McQueen, 1945-1956
- A. W. Crawford
- W. L. Bedinger
- W. T. McElroy
- W. F. Beattie
- W. C. Clarke
- James Gregory, 1963
- James Speed, 1966-1969
- Rick Jones, -2014
References
- Woodlawn Presbyterian Church: 75th Anniversary Celebration, 1883-1963 (1963) Woodlawn Presbyterian Church, via Birmingham Public Library
- Chamblee, Leonard (August 13, 1966) "Woodlawn Presbyterian To Replace All Facilities" Birmingham Post-Herald
- Chamblee, Leonard (March 25, 1969) "Church Announces Plans To Move" Birmingham Post-Herald
- Garrison, Greg (June 9, 2014) "'The youth group was in its 60s and 70s': Montevallo Road church founded in Woodlawn in 1888 closes." The Birmingham News