Bethel Baptist Church, 3233 29th Avenue North, Birmingham

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS ALA,37-BIRM,26-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Avenue North, Collegeville, Jefferson County, Alabama. Bethel Baptist Church is situated in the African-American working class neighborhood of Collegeville six miles north of the Birmingham city center and just west of the North Birmingham industrial, commercial, and residential districts. The church is located at latitude: longitude: This point was obtained using Google Earth in August There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS ALA,37-BIRM,26-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Bethel Baptist Church is significant in the origins and evolution of the church-led southern Civil Rights Movement of the that used nonviolent mass techniques to bring social change to racial democracy. Headquartered at this church between and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), with Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth as its president, pioneered a nonviolent direct action movement to confront multiple racial segregation issues that served as a model for the protests in Birmingham. The ACMHR was also pivotal to the success of the Freedom Rides that compelled the federal intervention needed to desegregate interstate public transportation and public facilities.

Due to the church s involvement, it withstood a number of bombings that occurred between and destroying the original parsonage. Description: Recorded church history states that the red brick building was completed in and was equipped with a steam plant for heating, elaborate stained glass windows, stone lintels and sills, extensive interior trim, solid walnut pews, and a baptismal. A cornerstone lists church officers at the time of construction. The Sanborn map shows the church as a two-story brick structure with steam heat and electricity. The first known physical description of the church located in public records appears in a Property Assessment Report.

The report describes interior spaces of the church, including a main auditorium, pastor study, and choir room on the second floor; the basement below ground level with a classroom, boiler and cool room; and the third-floor room at the rear was used for classes. Bethel Baptist Church consists of two main masses: the church proper facing Avenue North, and a three-story wing abutting the south end facing Street North. This massing reflects the interior spatial organization. The main block contains a two-story sanctuary space, lit by large windows. The sanctuary could seat up to 450 worshippers, and occasionally hosted with people standing and sitting in the balcony. The choir stand at the front could accommodate about thirty-five people.

Beneath the sanctuary lies the basement, divided up for Sunday school and fellowship spaces. The Street, or eastern facade of the wing, is BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH HABS No. AL-977 (Page 2) articulated by its projection from the nave and its high gable roof, whose ridge runs at right angles to the ridge of the sanctuary roof. The wing contains mechanical spaces and restrooms on the basement floor, and offices and classrooms on the upper two floors. The Avenue North and Street North facades were intended as the church's public face due to the use of more costly striated face brick. The remaining facades are finished in common brick. Originally, the mortar used to bond the bricks was a reddish-brown iron ore compound. In the the bricks were repointed with a grayish mortar compound.

The masonry was repointed again in the mid-1990s in white mortar. The western and eastern (street-side) facades retain the buttressing and window patterns. The southern facade displays a very utilitarian character. The exterior walls are laid in American common bond, with a subtle water table marked around the building by soldier bricks at the level of the main floor. While Bethel Baptist Church is an eclectic blend of several architectural styles, the primary influence is Gothic, due to the proportions of the front elevation, the vertical lines of the buttresses, finials atop the niched corner pilasters flanking the northern entry, and the crenellated parapet of the front porch.

The eclecticism of the building is evident in the Romanesque arched windows for the nave, the quasi-Palladian window high in the front facade, and the Victorian-style Roman pediments crowning the windows to either side of the central entryway bay. Brick diapering in the front pediment is reminiscent of nineteenth-century American commercial and industrial structures where such patterning expressed the decorative ingenuity of architects and masons restricted by material costs to a medium of standard-sized brick. Steel frame casement windows were installed in the throughout the building. A pre-World War II photo of the church entry facade shows that the building had a stronger Gothic character. This appears chiefly in the choir window over the front porch.

Instead of three round arches, the window opening was originally surmounted by a large shallow pointed arch, within which were four smaller pointed-arch windows. These windows consisted of finely leaded glass sash framed in heavy woodwork. Entry to the vestibule was originally through two fifteen-light wooden French doors flanked on either side by fifteen-light fixed panels. After the bombing, the French doors were replaced with aluminum- framed, frosted glass doors. Office and classroom spaces in the wing are finished simply with plaster walls and ceilings, though some room walls have been remodeled using finished plywood paneling or drywall. Spaces are trimmed with wooden baseboards, door, and window casings.

The basement features plywood panel walls, a painted concrete floor, and an acoustic tile ceiling. No consistent effort at systematic ornamentation is evident. BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH HABS No. AL-977 (Page 3) Overall, the church retains a high degree of integrity relative to its period of significance. The location and setting in a residential neighborhood remain intact. Important design characteristics, material, and workmanship relate to their period of significance, including changes made after bombings to the church door and windows that remain faithful to their original configuration. History: Bethel Baptist Church was organized in and the building completed in The architect and builder of the church are unknown. The church is privately owned. Rev.

Fred Shuttlesworth, who served as pastor for to was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference a major organization of the Civil Rights Movement. The Church with the parsonage were a place of refuge for Freedom Riders in both the Anniston and Birmingham areas. It was the coordination and command center between ACMHR, the Kennedy administration, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee that was paramount to reaching the Freedom Ride's goals. The church's interior has been remodeled several times over the years, chiefly due to the bombing suffered in Due to Bethel Baptist Church s involvement, in a bomb damaged the church and destroyed the original parsonage that stood adjacent.

Another bombing on June 29, shattered windows and cracked the ceiling plaster. Pockmarks from shrapnel from the bomb are evident in the brick on the eastern, or N. Street, side of the building. Another bomb in shattered the church windows. In late December bombers struck Bethel Baptist Church a third time damaging its windows along with the porch supports. Children in the church basement received minor cuts on their faces. The sanctuary walls were originally finished with plaster and beaded wainscoting. In the sanctuary, they have been sheathed in sheet rock and wallpapered above the wainscoting. In other parts of the building, walls have been covered with Masonite paneling.

In the floors and stairs throughout the building were covered with a burnt orange carpet, and the original ceilings were covered with dropped, acoustical tile ceilings. The dropped ceiling in the sanctuary collapsed in the recent past and current owners intend to restore the ceiling, at least in this area, to its pre-1970s, beaded board appearance. Original pews were dark, varnished pine with gothic ornaments on the ends. Most of these pews survive as classroom and fellowship room seating in the basement, and some have been sold to another church. Current pews and furnishings are blond-finished oak devoid of any gothic themes. Current owners hope to return the original pews to the sanctuary and to remove the vintage carpet.

The Roman arch windows contain opalescent glass set in steel frames; the original stained glass windows were blown out by the bombings. The Gothic theme is reflected in the sanctuary interior only by chandeliers and wall sconces. BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH HABS No. AL-977 (Page 4)

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS ALA,37-BIRM,26-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Historic American Buildings Survey, Bethel Baptist Church, Collegeville, Alabama, HABS No. AL-977, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Miele, Frank Historian, National Park Service, report of onsite visit, January 16- 17, Salvatore, Susan Cianci. Bethel Baptist Church, Parsonage, and Guardhouse, Collegeville, Alabama National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior,

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS ALA,37-BIRM,26-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The documentation of the Bethel Baptist Church and the other resources within the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium (managed by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute) was jointly sponsored by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Catherine C. Lavoie, Chief, of the National Park Service s Heritage Documentation Programs, and the Consortium, Priscilla Hancock Cooper, Project Director. Regional coordination was provided by Athena F. Richardson, Consortium Operations Manager; Georgette M. Norman, Consortium Project Historian and Joyce O Neal, Consortium Selma and Black Belt Coordinator.

Financial support was provided by the Kaplan Fund, Amy Freitag, Executive Director, and Will Raynolds, Program Director, Heritage Conservation; and by the American Institute of Architects, Robert Ivy, Chief Executive Officer. The documentation was undertaken during spring and summer and was organized and overseen by Catherine C. Lavoie and Jarob J. Ortiz, HDP photographer. The photographs were taken by Jarob J. Ortiz. The historical reports were prepared by Georgette M. Norman, Project Historian, with assistance by Project Intern Amelia Chase. The reports were edited by Catherine C. Lavoie.