Holy Comforter Episcopal Church - Montgomery, Alabama - Anglican and Episcopal Churches on Waymarking.com

The Church of the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church was originally organized by Civil War refugees from Christ Church in Pensacola, Florida, in 1864. It went dormant after the war but was reorganized by the remaining vestry members in 1885. They purchased a lot on Root Stret, now South Goldthwaite Street, in 1886 and built a church building which was paid for by 1887. The church was consecrated by Bishop Wilmer of Alabama on June 15, 1887. With the growth in population after World War Two. the parish decided to move to a new part of Montgomery in the late 1950s. They purchased propery and moved from South Goldthwaite Street to their current location in 1960 when the current church was built.

Bishop Wilmer holds the distinction of being the only bishop consecrated by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. After the Civil War, he was allowed to take the seat for the Diocese of Alabama in the House of Bishops when the Episcopal Church reunited.

Many of the furnishings of the old building can be seen in the current church as one interesting feature of the new church building is that the congregation designed it to resemble the old church building enough so they could bring the stained glass windows, the reredos, and other furnishings with them. In researching the history, I found that one of the vestrymen who was instrumental in reviving the parish was Samuel Goode Jones, to whom the baptismal font is dedicated, and who may have been the father of Thomas Goode Jones, the Governor of Alabama in the 1890s. The wood altar and reredos was designed and carved by Mr. Silas McBee of Montgeagle, Tennessee. It was the gift of St. Mary's Guild and friends in honor of Bishop Samuel Smith Harris, who was the Bishop of Michigan. My source for the history was "Half a Century -- and more" by Lucharlle Clayton Wilson, published in Montgomery in 1940 and found in the Rare Books Collection of the Montgomery Public Library (RARE/283/Wil).

I will include some photos of the current building so one can see how they tried to preserve the old building, including the outside "steeple" on the front.

After the congregation left the Goldthwaite property, it was renovated and used by a local amateur theater group, the Little Theater, for many years. After they left in the early 1990s, the property was turned over to the Jubilee Community Center. For the website, I will include the current church's site. For the construction date, I will use the consecration date.

Active Church: No School on property: No Date Built: 06/15/1887 Service Times: Not at this location. Website: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the Church. Please try to keep your GPSr out of the photo.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.