Over 100 Years of Ministry to our Community

The year was 1903.  Wilbur and Orville Wright had just successfully flown their airplane at Kitty Hawk.  President Teddy Roosevelt, known for his exploits at San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War, had captured the attention of the world by refusing to shoot a bear cub while on a hunting trip; and the Ideal Toy Company was frantically marketing their newest toy, the “Teddy Bear.”  Birmingham, Alabama was only 33 years old and had earned the name the Magic City by becoming an Iron and Steel Empire almost overnight.  The Commerce Club was celebrating the city’s success by commissioning the world’s largest cast iron statue of the Roman god Vulcan to represent the city at the St. Louis Exposition and World’s Fair.  The latest horseless carriage called the Buick was being seen on Birmingham streets, but most people still walked, rode a bicycle or took to streetcar to move about the city.

It is on the streetcar line that ran up and down Twentieth Street that the story of Highlands United Methodist Church began.  The Circle at Five Points South was created by the turning of the mule-drawn trolley that ran from Birmingham to the city’s first suburb called Highlands.  In 1891, the Birmingham Railway and Electric Company installed electric street cars along this route and then continued around the elegant, mansion-lined Highland Avenue.  In those days, a favorite prank of neighborhood boys was to grease the tracks on the steep Twentieth Street hill so the cars would have difficulty going up the hill and would slide back down again to the delight of the boys.  Perhaps it was such a prank that inspired four women, Mrs. J.S. Gillespy, Mrs. R Eubank, Mrs. Edward Campbell and Mrs. Cunningham Wilson, to invite the Rev. John D. Simpson, presiding elder of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Episcopal, Church, South to tea at the Wilson home in early February of 1903 to discuss the need for a Methodist Sunday School in the neighborhood.

A room was secured in Phillip Alosi’s Palace Market, located at the site of the present church at the intersection of Eleventh Avenue and Magnolia Avenue; Mr. Robert Munger was elected Superintendent.  The first Sunday School was held on the first day of March with fifty-three in attendance, eight of whom were Mr. and Mrs. Munger’s own children.  Much interest was shown in the Sunday School, and it was decided that a prayer meeting should be organized for Wednesday evenings.  The Rev. Dr. James McCoy, editor of THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, was invited to hold the services.  Both the Sunday School and the Prayer Service were held in the Palace Market until September 12, when a new building called the Five Points Chapel was completed on the southwest corner of Eleventh Avenue South and Richard Arrington Boulevard.   These endeavors proved so successful that it was decided that a Methodist Church was needed at Five Points.  On December 2, 1903, the Five Points Methodist Episcopal Church, South was officially organized with a charter membership of 183 people.  The Rev. Dr. McCoy, who later became President of Birmingham-Southern College and was elected Bishop, was appointed as the church’s first pastor.

By 1904 the original site of the Sunday School and our present Sanctuary had been purchased by the congregation, and subscriptions had been taken toward construction of a church proper.  A contest was sponsored by the Board of Stewards for a building design offering a prize of seventy-five dollars for the first place design, fifty dollars for the second place design and twenty-five for the third.  According to Board minutes there were only seven submissions to the competition owing to the rigid requirements laid forth and the limited purse offered.  The winning design was submitted by the firm of Wilson and Wendall of Columbia, South Carolina, and the second place prize went to P. Thornton Marye of Atlanta.  In a strange twist of fate, the project was not offered to the contest winner but to Thornton Marye, who was in town working on the Terminal Train Station.  Sunday School Superintendent and prominent businessman Robert Munger, who lived across Twentieth Street from where the new church was to be built, was greatly impressed with Marye’s work and persuaded the Highlands’ Board to accept the Marye design over the winning design.  Marye designed several of Atlanta’s outstanding homes and landmarks including the Atlanta Terminal Station, the Southern Bell Building and, perhaps most notably, the Fox Theatre which he designed in 1928. 

Construction on the Sanctuary Building began in 1907, and with it came a new name for the congregation, Highlands Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  After two years construction, the Spanish Renaissance Revival style Sanctuary was completed in March 1909.  The long awaited structure was somewhat lacking because a shortage of funds prevented the completion of the bell tower.  The printed program for the dedication of the new church contains a photograph of the then new building without the bell tower and with this almost apologetic footnote, “When completed with the tower as designed, it will present a much more beautiful appearance from the outside.”  Another interesting note on the bulletin for that day admonishes the congregation not to read the history of the church until they are home to avoid confusion.  The Rev. Dr. McCoy was succeeded in 1909 by the Rev. Dr. Hoyt Dobbs, who also went on to be elected Bishop.

In 1921, a set of bells, cast by the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore, Maryland was anonymously donated in honor of Bishop James McCoy.  Under the watchful eye of architect Bem Price, the thirteen bells weighing over 14,000 pounds were lifted into place by crane, and the tower was then constructed around them.  The bells were dedicated on Christmas Eve of that year.  Nine concerts were given during the next week with a very diverse selection of tunes being played that including Silver Threads Among the Gold, Home Sweet Home, The Anvil Chorus, Dixie, The Lost Chord and more sacred melodies.  The McCoy Tower Bells are still rung manually each Sunday before and after worship, for weddings, funerals and other special occasions.  Since their 1995 refurbishing, they have also rung electronically every quarter hour with a Westminster Chime. 

Highlands grew rapidly and by the early twenties had outgrown the sanctuary building.  In 1924 work began on a new Church School Building designed by Bem Price in the Italian Renaissance Revival Style.  The building was state of the art and included modern restrooms, high ceilings with detailed crown molding and light airy classrooms.  The Church School building was cited by both the American Institute of Architects and the religious press for its excellent design.  

The Rev. Dr. Marvin Franklin was pastor of the church during the Great Depression.  Dr. Franklin had an optimistic and charismatic personality during that troubled time of rampant unemployment and homelessness.  Highlands grew and prospered under his leadership.  He was the third Highlands pastor to answer the call to become Bishop.  Dr. W.A. Shelton, a renowned Biblical Archeologist and scholar, served as interim pastor until the appointment of the Rev. Dr. Guy McGowan who served from 1949 until 1966.

Near the beginning of the Rev. Dr. McGowan’s tenure, the chancel of the sanctuary was literally turned around, making what had been the back of the church the front.  The original design of the Sanctuary had a central pulpit located where the center doors under the balcony are currently located.  The pastor’s office was in the present Narthex and the remaining chimney from a small pot bellied stove in that office can be seen above the right hand exterior doors of the church.   Above the pulpit was a choir loft and below the stained glass windows at the top of the balcony was the organ.  The1950 design extended the Sanctuary on the eastern wall almost fifty feet and incorporated a chancel with a divided choir and a central altar against the east wall with lectern and pulpit to each side.  This was quite an innovation for a Methodist Church in the fifties and was not without its controversary.  Long-time choir director Vernon Noah resigned over the renovation, saying he refused to direct a divided choir.  He was followed by Amos Hudson, who had just received his Master’s degree from Columbia University and would serve the church as Choir Director for almost fifty years with great distinction.

The late 1950’s and 1960’s brought much social turbulence to Birmingham as the community and the church struggled to come to grips with racial injustice.  Highlands was not exempt from that struggle.  Both leaders and members struggled over the implications of civil rights.  The question of African Americans being welcomed to worship at the church arose, and opinions were divided.  Under the leadership of some Highlands’ members, the Methodist Laymen’s Union which opposed integration, held an organizational meeting at Highlands.  This action was publicly denounced by an attending Birmingham-Southern College student named Tommy Reeves, who was arrested after leaving the meeting for disturbing the peace.  Highlands’ member and attorney David Vann represented the student, and the charges were dropped.  As tensions mounted during this era, many fled the city over Red Mountain to the suburbs, and for the first time in the church history, the rolls of Highlands began to decline.

In 1966 the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival appeared.  The fourteenth century medieval pageant was a Highlands’ tradition for twenty-seven years with a cast of eighty, orchestra and chorus.  Another long-time Highlands’ musical tradition was the annual holiday performance of Handel’s Messiah for forty-nine years. 

The Five Points South neighborhood underwent a bit of a decline during the decade of the 1970’s becoming a bit tawdry but Highlands held her own.  Thanks to the civic interests of many Highlands' members, the city dedicated resources to the revitalization of the neighborhood and new sidewalks and lighting paved the way for renewed economic development of the area.  In 1978, the Rev. Dr. Belon Friday came to Highlands and brought his warm personal touch to the pulpit and his sparkling sense of humor and storytelling ability.  While at Highlands, Dr. Friday established the Gertrude Molton Williams Ministerial Education Fund, and Highlands became known as the church that helps preachers.  A prestigious scholarship named in honor of Guy McGowan was also established at this time at Birmingham-Southern to assist undergraduate students preparing for the ministry.  Ed and Peggy Dixon working with Dr. Friday and then Associate Pastor B.B. Hughes, established the Ministerial Education Leave Society which afforded educational and study opportunities to clergy across the North Alabama Conference. 

Dr. Friday retired in 1993 and was followed by the Rev. Dr. Oliver Clark who helped Highlands ask the important question:  “What is God calling us to do at Highlands?”  In answer to that question, the congregation started the Highlands Child Care Center, reorganized the Administrative Board to a Church Council, made the Festival of the Three Kings a city-wide operation, established the Community Ministry and Project ID program for the Homeless, and undertook the Connected by Faith Building Renovation and Construction Program which resulted in the new Greeting Space.

In 2003, as we marked our Centennial, the Rev. Dr. Hughey Reynolds filled our pulpit.  An active participant of the Ministerial Education Leave Society, he is best known for his powerful preaching.  Now, in 2005, the Rev. David Carboni fills our pulpit and is leading our congregation. 

Who could have imagined in 1903 where we would be one hundred years later? Again, we stand barely over the threshold of a new century.   Much has changed in these one hundred years, but much remains the same. We stand where the city and suburbs meet, and we are a church that seeks to welcome all people and tell the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The ministry of our church still takes place in Sunday School classes and worship still happens in our lovely sanctuary. Today those Sunday School rooms house our Child Care Center during weekdays and the ministries of Highlands may take place on our front lawn and in our community ministry room with the homeless.  Highlands is at work in Southside with Community Garden and across town with Habitat for Humanity and the Department of Human Resources through the Festival of the Three Kings.  We support Urban Ministries in West End and teams of youth and adults travel to Appalachia each summer to repair houses.  Volunteers in Missions and Medical teams go around the globe to Latvia and Nicaragua.   

Four women having tea in 1903 would unlikely dream that such magnificent structure would grow from their conversation and one day grace the streetcar line or the tremendous impact that our church would have.  Reflecting on our past and celebrating where we are today, one can only feel a sense of excitement about where God will lead Highlands in the future.