Photo courtesy of Catherine Allen.
Mountain Brook Baptist Chapel 1952
Mountain Brook Baptist Church built a chapel in 1949, which is pictured three years after completion. The church originally met in a house in Crestline Village.
Mountain Brook Baptist Church will celebrate its 70th anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 7 with a worship service and distribution of a new history book.
A 10 a.m. worship service will be followed by a complimentary lunch. Each family will be able to take home the history book, which was written by Drs. Lee and Catherine Allen.
The church was established in September 1944, two years after the city was incorporated. The church originally met in a small house at the corner of Jackson and Vine on a lot now occupied by the Mountain Brook Board of Education. Jackson was not paved, and Vine had not yet been opened except for a short distance around Dexter.
The church meetinghouse had been built in 1927 by Richard A. Knipe, who had operated a convenience store and deli and became a chiropractor. When it became the site of the church in 1944, the house was renovated to make a chapel seating 95 people.
The first pastor, J. O. Colley, and his family, including three preschool-aged children, lived in an apartment attached to the house-chapel. His daughter and son-in-law Ruth Colley and Bryant Strain were sent out in 1968 to establish MBBC’s first daughter church, Brookwood Baptist.
The current church site was purchased in 1945-46 for $18,500. The purchase included 3.46 acres. The first part of today’s church building was the chapel, constructed in 1949.
“The church and community have strengthened each other and grown together through these 70 years,” Catherine Allen said. “From studying the history of the church, I have to say that the founders had a vision of strong and service-oriented community that continues to come to realization.”
For more visit mbbc.com.
-Submitted by Catherine Allen
