Hemphill Presbyterian Church

Duane's take

The official marker tells this story, and here's my telling of it: the way Hemphill Presbyterian Church came to be what it is today. It starts small. It always starts small.

The year is 1889, and a husband and wife (Mr. and Mrs. Andy J. Chambers) decide that a Sunday School is worth organizing.

No grand building, no charter, no seal. Just two people with enough conviction to gather folks together and see what grows. What grew was a church.

By 1891, that little seed of a Sunday School had taken root in a real, official way. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formally organized; thirteen charter members strong; and they called it the Tabernacle Church. Thirteen people.

Some folks might call that a modest start. I'd call it a foundation. In those early years, the congregation didn't go it entirely alone.

They stayed closely associated with the Taylor Street Cumberland Presbyterian Church, leaning on that connection while they found their footing. Then came 1898. The congregation made a move, physically, officially, to the corner of Cannon Avenue and Hemphill Street.

And with that new address came a new name: the Cannon Avenue Cumberland Presbyterian Church. You can almost feel the place takin' shape, can't you? A new corner, a new sign, a congregation growin' into itself.

But they weren't done renaming just yet. By 1906, the name had shifted again; to the one that stuck. Hemphill Presbyterian Church.

That's what it's been called ever since. And three years after that, in 1909, the congregation settled onto the very site where that marker stands today. Same ground.

Still standing. From a Sunday School organized by two people, to thirteen charter members, to a congregation that's held its ground on that same site for well over a century. That's not just a church.

That's a story that started with the Chambers family deciding something was worth beginning.

What the marker says

This congregation grew out of a Sunday School organized in 1889 by Mr. and Mrs. Andy J. Chambers. In 1891, an official Cumberland Presbyterian church, known as the Tabernacle Church, was organized with 13 charter members. During its early years the congregation was closely associated with the Taylor Street Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Following a move to Cannon Ave. and Hemphill St. in 1898, the church adopted the name Cannon Avenue Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but has been known by its current name since 1906. The congregation has met at this site since 1909. (1985)