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Photograph of Bethel Baptist Church
Photograph by Jet Lowe, Photographer, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage, and Guardhouse

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

From the record

“Bethel Baptist Church is a Baptist church in the Collegeville neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama, United States. The church served as headquarters from 1956 to 1961 for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), which was led by Fred Shuttlesworth and active in the Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement.”

Wikipedia article Bethel Baptist Church (Birmingham, Alabama), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 189 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 2005 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
  • Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
  • Address. 3233, 3232, and 3236 29th Avenue North, Collegeville, 35207
  • When was it listed? April 2005
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Birmingham
  • National Register reference number. 05000455 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

55 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage, and Guardhouse between 1993 and 2019, burning about 824 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 21 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Arson/incendiarism21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Debris and open burning9
Recreation and ceremony4
Equipment and vehicle use4
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Natural2
Smoking1
Other causes1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 1995Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
6 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenance7.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
26 September 2019Equipment and vehicle use10 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190926-8
24 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionNER-20150924-001
19 September 2007Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
13 September 2003Arson/incendiarismunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission4309 SUNFLOWER STREET, AL
26 August 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
25 August 2011Arson/incendiarismunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission2386 CR 65, AL

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage, and Guardhouse: 8 past producers, 3 plants, 3 unknowns, 3 producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Vermiculite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Birmingham PlantVermiculitePast Producer
Wade Sand & Gravel Co. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Citadel Cement OperationStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Dolcito QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
East Thomas Quarry & PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Hammond MineIronPast Producer
Hammond, Dago, Hendona, and Valleyview MinesIronPast ProducerHematite
Helen Bess MineIronPast Producer
Irondale MineIronPast Producer
Kewanaw MineIronPast Producer

Every working recorded in Jefferson County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
New Rising Star Baptist Church0.3 miles2005
Shady Grove Baptist Church0.7 miles2005
St. Luke AME Church0.8 miles2005
Norwood Boulevard Historic District0.9 miles2001
St. Luke AME Zion Church1.3 miles2005
Slossfield Community Center1.5 miles2008

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 05000455 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jefferson CountyAll 189 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.