The Montevallo First Baptist Church has been an architectural and spiritual landmark on Main Street since the existing building was constructed in 1910. The church anchors the southwest corner of the Main and Middle Street intersection.
According to the church cornerstone, as well as local historian, Eloise Meroney, the church was first organized in 1856. A brick church building was built in 1858 on property donated by Edmund King on the spot where the west wing of Main dormitory on the University of Montevallo campus sits today. In 1878, this building collapsed, presumably from the pressure a poorly reinforced bell tower exerted on its supporting timbers. It was not long after that construction of a new wood frame church began on a Main Street lot (where the church stands today) donated by the future first president of the Girls Industrial School of Alabama, Capt. H.C. Reynolds. This building was eventually converted into Sunday School rooms when the main sanctuary was built in 1910. The wood frame building was veneered with brick at the same time. In 1962 the chuch added a new three story Student Center on a vacant lot between the church and the Plaza Grill Cafe.
As part of an effort in the late 1970’s to preserve and rehabilitate the original building’s brick facade and to protect its impressive stained glass windows, extensive renovations were undertaken that also included redesigning the church’s bell tower and adding a much taller steeple. From an architectural perspective, the church’s elegant wood paneled domed sanctuary makes the building unique and not something normally found in small southern towns the size of Montevallo.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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