The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-05-11
M E N " o M FEN
 A N D T H l N c 5

| tAod SClllClAihS bO SdJ
 progress of the Baptists in Athens and l only wish l had the facts at my | fingers end to write about the forward movement of the Christian church.
 only know that today they are wor- shipping in a modern church building which is credit to them and to Athens, for it is about the last thing in church architecture according to twentieth century ideals and needs.
 l I am sorry that for the moment the name of the pastor has escaped me, but want to show that he has strong hold on his people by telling of an in cident which happened to me on Sunday morning before church. I passed by the Christian church and had stopped to admire it.
 1 A young man informed me that there would be no preaching at the morning hour, as Dr. Frank Willis Barnett was to preach the commencement sermon at the North Alabama Agricultural school, but that if l would come back | lOT lu6 HlRuI SGIVlCo HO0AN AhSest ~ mighty good sermon. It's great thing for a pastor to have behind him lot of boosting members.
 | The Presbyterian church, facing the square, is a well-built and substantial appearing house of worship and has that solidity about 1t which Is asso- | ai Iora eIxxr rtor ter Tha nj copal church on one of the residence streAs conforms to the type of building which somehow is associated with the Episcopalians. I can't explain 1t my self, but it is fact that usually both the church and the grounds have an air which differentiate them from other churches.
 Now, here is where l am going to get me to magnify the position of the Meth odfsts Tn Athens, for they have had a strong hold on 1t for many, many years, the college as well as the church hav- ing been great factors in the social as well as the religious life of the people, land I might add has played no insig- Inificant part in local, county and state l politics. This not by way of criticism, but merely a statement of facts.
 know full we'll it's meddling for an l outsider and a Baptist to boot to speak his mind in a matter which is no con- cern of his and is liable to be miscon- strued; but to tell the honest truth. when Dr. Glasgow took me by the lot bought for the new Methodist church and then showed me the old one which had been sold and is to give way for a hotel sometime in the future, felt sad. I'll admit that the new lot is a fine one in every way. l know that the old church building is inadequate to the demands put upon it as twentieth century religious plant, for now a church is no longer looked upon as mere preaching station, but must func- tion in many ways in the religious life of its members. This is accentuated to the fullest in the varied activities of the great institutional churches in our big cities.
 I can understand the wish and the l'necessity behind the Athens Methodists under the leadership of Dr. Read for a larger and a more adaptable house of worship; but from the standpoint of | the antiquarian and lover of the beauti- full I cannot. but express my feelings against the destroying of so perfect a type of church architecture as is the present Athens Methodist church, | l have in my library a wonderful book of the old historic churches of America, and I feel sure that if the ar l tist and author who assembled the ones published had known that in all the 1 land there was such a gem as is the ] Athens Methodist church, that he would have made the pilgrimage to draw it or nave it photographed for his collection. ing by it 10 get a look at 1t. saw it in all lights and it stood the test.
  | What I have written will no doubt cause many Athenians to laugh at me for my mistaken fervor, but as the Parthenon was the glory of old Athens us the masterpiece of architecture, so say that the Methodist church in mod ern Athens is the most artistic and dis tinctive thing in the city, and to demol- ish it will be to destroy one of the best types of old church architecture in America.
 Athens is not only city of schools and churches. but is famed far and wide for it's lovely homes. 1t was q constant delight to stroll through the streets, for everywhere l ran across old ante oellum homes which to my mind make the modern pretentious residences look cheap and vulgar. There is something about their simple lines which makes Tor beauty ana peace. They uo not sur on ones nerves like some of the mou- ern apominatlons.
 One of them occupies a block. It sits in the mldule of the grounus, not as something imposed on the surroundings by man, put as ii it were part ot nature and grew up out or mother earth 1t ritted into the scene like the quIet oaks, the shivering elms, the signlng plnes. | the dancing shrubs and the waving flowers The blue grass was only the 1 spread carpet upon which robins chirps, while mockine birds answered them from the leafy bowers overhead. 1 was surprised to find that the robins were still visiting In Athens.