The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1912-09-06
A GREAT CHURCH
AT LOUISVILLE.
Magnificent Structure Is One Of
the Finest Buildings of the
Kind In the South
HAS MANY YEARS OF HISTORY
VIII Be Object of Interest When Thou
) sands of That Faith Gather in
Blue Grass State For Con.
vention This Fall.

When the Disciples of Christ gather
In Louisville, KY, October 18th to
E2nd, for their great international con-
vention. the magnificent new First
Christian church will be an object of
great interest to them. Not only be-
cause 1t is one of the finest church
structures in the south, but because of
the history of this remarkable congre-
cation which reaches back into the
beginnings of things as far as this
body of people is concerned.
The congregation was first known
as Reformed Baptist, having separated
themselves from the Regular Bap-
lists" after friendly disagreement on
points of doctrine in the early thirties
For awhile both branches of the
church met in the same building.
The Reformed Baptists, of Campbell
following, sold out their interest in
The building to the regular Baptists,
In 1888, and occupied for worship for
kwo or three years a Westinghouse on
Second street, between Market and
Jefferson. From thence they moved
Into the church building on Fifth
ntreet, between Walnut and Chestnut,
In 1888. In this building they wor-
bhiped until they moved into the new
quarters on the northeast corner of
Fourth and Walnut streets. Two
buildings have occupied this site, the
-fnrtv, h,,{1 foI
atively modest structure, erected in
nS42 or 3, and the splendid old struc-
kure whose corner stone was laid in
1850, and which for fifty years graced
and glorif1ed the corner of Fourth and
Walnut streets-the very heart and
penter of Louisville's life. This build
ing, because of the necessities of COM
mercial advance, and the limited equip
ment for modern church work, was
sold, with profound regret on the part,
especially, of the older members of
the congregation, for the very splen-
did sum of $350,000, With this sum
The present structure was built, after
having donated $4,000 for the estab-
iishment of the Edenside mission
church, and having paid off the bond
ed Indebtedness on the old church.
Out of the church at Fourth and
Walnut-the mother church-all of the |
other churches have come. Within the |
last twenty years the Fourth and Wal
nut Street church has directly, by the |
raising of money, and subsequent as
sistance, established the Clifton |
church, the Falkland church and the
Edenside church.
1t was not until in 1888 that the
larger body of the New Testament
party assumed the name of Disciples
Of Christ" Thus it was that the first
movement among the Baptists of Ken
lucky, in the direction of those princi-
pies for which the Disciples plead, was
made by the congregation in Louis
Vile. 1t is proper to add that it was
Philip S. Fall who gave the first i'm
Detus to the Reformation in this city,
and introduced the custom of weekly
The bronze tablet in the foyer of this
present building gives in brief form
he main historic facts, as to the +
places of worship and other interest (
ng features.
The present building was dedicated '
November II, 1911, and has entered t
Ipon a brilliant and prosperous career ]
f work.
During this past year, from this con- g
regation alone, has been pledged and
Mostly raised, nearly $4,000 for the !
pecial million dollar campaign fund t
Or foreign missionary work, this alto t
ether apart from the regular contri- L
ution to this cause and every other /
ause connected with the Brotherhood. t
he church has never emphasized one a
base of the great mission work at the C
xpense of the other; and so all inter- K
SITS have been provided for. s
The present membership of the
hurch is close to 1,400. 1t is a church Y
eb in history and tradition, and dates V
l its ministry from the very begin b
ing of the Reformation movement, b
nd has had some of the most notable tc
the great pioneer leaders as its pas b,
rs. W