John Shearer: Touring The Architecturally Praised First Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Driving alongside North Moore Road, a visitor might think he or she has been transplanted to the fields of England or elsewhere in Europe when the eye-catching and Gothic revival First Cumberland Presbyterian Church comes into view.

Towering over the expansive and mostly grassy landscape, the stone-covered church appears to be from a classic era of architecture rather than the mid-century period in which it and the surrounding homes were mostly built.

As I found out, there is a reason why it is so large, or maybe multiple reasons.

Although I had passed it for decades, I had never been inside of the sanctuary/nave at 1505 N. Moore Road until attending a communitywide Christmas concert there about 2019. I have also attended some other community events in the fellowship hall, helped wife Laura pick up a young relative from the day care facility there, and even went to another community Christmas concert earlier this month.

After the latter, I decided to try and do a story to learn more about this church and its architecture. And with the help of pastor Dr. R. Courtney Krueger, I was graciously given a tour a few days before Christmas.

I learned, or maybe verified what I possibly suspected, that it was designed by a firm from Knoxville now known as BarberMcMurry Architects and headed for years by Charles Barber. He was a prolific architect there of larger homes from the early 20^th century as well as churches and University of Tennessee buildings.

While living in Knoxville from 2005-17, I attended a church with which he was the co-designer: Church Street United Methodist Church in downtown Knoxville, a structure with similar looking stone and Gothic arches. It had been built in 1931 during the usual end of the more classic style of church architecture.

Although the Barber firm’s buildings were not quite as numerous around the South as those of Chattanoogan R.H. Hunt, who was a generation older, Mr. Barber was still similarly the renowned architect for a certain time in that city. He had toured the classic buildings of Europe at a young age, and his architect father, George Barber, had come up with some mail-order house plans that were used in several communities.

Brainerd actually has two churches designed by the firm that was then known as Barber & McMurry. The other is Grace Episcopal Church, which opened a little sooner. Located at Belvoir Avenue and Brainerd Road, the tan-brick building but with a Gothic-arched breezeway like at First Cumberland opened in 1956 after a 1955 ground-breaking ceremony. The tower and other sections on the front and elsewhere opened in 1961. The church, named for Grace Richmond, the daughter of industrialist Theodore Richmond, dated to the 1800s but in 1941 had moved from Highland Park to the former Brainerd Road home of Chattanooga Mayor and State Senator W.R. Crabtree.

Learning how the Charles Barber firm was chosen to do the two Chattanooga churches would require some further digging, but the word of Barber’s skills had obviously spread down the Tennessee River by the 1950s. Although this is pure conjecture, in the case of Grace Episcopal, it might have also been influenced by the fact that the longtime Grace rector, the Rev. Dr. Battle McLester, liked Gothic architecture. And the Barber firm was known for being a leader in creating that style in East Tennessee.

After his death in 1968, Dr. McLester had left a good part of his above-average estate to the church, including for a reredos, or partition or panel behind the altar. Dr. McLester had hoped that the designer of that would be someone who was Episcopalian and loved Gothic architecture. Mr. Barber had died in 1962, although his firm continues today and is headed by 1979 Hixson High graduate Chuck Griffin.

So, perhaps Mr. McLester was a leader in helping Grace secure the services of the Barber firm in the 1950s. A man with an interesting theological past, the former Columbus, Ga., resident had begun as a Methodist pastor and filled in some at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church before becoming attracted to the Episcopal faith.

The contractor for Grace Episcopal was lifelong church member John William Batterham Lindsey, a former World War I officer who died in 1993 at the age of 99.

Since the initial part of Grace Episcopal was built a couple of years before the first phase of First Cumberland Presbyterian, Grace officials had likely been in contact with the BarberMcMurry firm first.

But the longtime pastor of First Cumberland, Dr. J. Fred Johnson, was likely very familiar with Mr. Barber’s work from having spent some of his earlier years in Knoxville. A top graduate of Knoxville Central High, he had served in the Marines in World War I and later. During his military service, he saw and admired some cathedrals in Europe, and they had reportedly put an idea in his head that later came to fruition.

Married to the former Josephine Mathis, whose brother, George Mathis, was principal of Brainerd High in the 1960s, he started out in accounting. But some health scares and successful recoveries from two of his family members pulled him into ministerial work and personal accounting in a thankful and grateful manner. The couple had two sons, J. Fred Johnson Jr. and Howard L. Johnson, who graduated from Baylor School in the 1940s and later entered the insurance field.

After preaching at some small churches outside Knoxville, Dr. Johnson came to Chattanooga in 1933 as pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian, which at the time was located at the northeast corner of Oak and Lindsay streets in a now-razed building that featured red brick. A non-descript office building now stands in this lot across Oak Street from the back of First-Centenary United Methodist Church.

The First Cumberland membership was about 220 when he came, but his appealing preaching and ministering skills quickly became apparent, and the church membership grew. Standing room only became common, as was the case for some other Chattanooga churches with dynamic pastors and/or healthy congregations around that time.

As a result, the church with him directing the way began looking for a larger facility, and a large tract of land was secured off North Moore Road. With him at least verbally drawing the specifications for the Barber/McMurry firm, the south wing and fellowship hall opened in 1958, and the sanctuary/nave and the north wing opened in 1963. A tower was originally part of the design, but it did not come to fruition.

Dr. Johnson’s family had lived for several years at 627 Vine St., where the UTC student center now sits, but after the move to Brainerd, he and his wife located to the church-owned property at 4600 Maria St. a short distance across North Moore Road.

The general contractor when the current church was built was the John Martin Co., while the Garland Sherman Co. did the masonry. The Hubbuch Glass Co. installed the stained-glass windows designed by Wilbur Burnham of Boston. The parquet flooring in the nave and chapel was done by Logan-Moore Inc. of Chattanooga.

And in a unique gesture of ecumenical goodwill, the steel was reportedly donated by the Jewish brothers, Mose and Garrison Siskin, who had also contributed the steel for the construction of the Warner Park Fieldhouse for a 1953 Billy Graham Crusade.

An organ was built in later years by Fratelli Ruffatti of Italy, and current pastor Dr. Krueger said that resulted in the reconfiguration of the chancel area where the choir sits. First Cumberland Presbyterian’s longtime organ master has been Bruce Clark, who has been on staff since 1975, before Dr. Johnson retired.

Dr. Krueger, who said he heard Dr. Johnson was also inspired by the Duke University chapel where Dr. Krueger attended divinity school to get his master’s after graduating from Furman, pointed out other features of the sanctuary during a tour. They included 12 columns depicting the 12 tribes of Israel in the Bible, and painted symbols on the wood ceiling that Dr. Johnson had also wanted. Dr. Krueger said those can be seen well when candlelight events are held in the nave.

He added that the outside of the structure is of Tennessee stone and the interior features Appalachian wood. “We were locally sourced before being locally sourced was cool,” he said with a laugh.

He also pointed out that the stained-glass windows, some of which may have been installed later, tell specific stories on each side, with the main one behind the altar depicting the resurrection of Jesus. The amicable Dr. Krueger, who is also a nationally successful competitor in ride and tie, which involves endurance running and horseback riding, said he often comes into the nave to pray for members. And that window is particularly inspiring.

“It is really helpful to me when I’m here praying for someone needing to experience resurrection in one way or the other,” he said.

He also loves the fact he has been able to work since 2015 in such a handsome church sanctuary, which he says he often passes through during the week on the way from one wing to another because that is the clearest path. Visitors have also told him they feel like they are in Europe when they come in the sanctuary.

The sanctuary is easy to see from the outside from all sides due to the minimal landscaping. While trees are normally a positive in adding aesthetics to a nice example of architecture, as they seem to do at Grace Episcopal, here the setting allows for greater examination of the structure.

While some Christians historically believe the people and ministries and lessons and sermons are of utmost importance in worship, Dr. Johnson was a believer that a nice church building could also certainly be an asset to draw those closer to Christ and God and enhance the worship experience. Dr. Krueger hinted that the structure is definitely soothing on the soul and not just the eyes.

“Dr. Johnson, the inspiration behind it, said that it was supposed to be an architectural prayer and that is just so perfect,” he said of this man who retired in 1978 and died in 1985 and, according to Dr. Krueger, wanted his elders to sit just to his right in the cross-shaped room.

But while Dr. Johnson liked and admired great cathedrals, he was also known to be focused on the humbled as well. He had noticed while downtown the importance of his church reaching out positively to youth, and he became a champion of recreation opportunities for them. As a result, the Cumberland Youth Foundation program that included ballfields and, uniquely for a church, an outdoor swimming pool, was developed when the church relocated.

Although the sanctuary was built to hold about 1,200 and attendance was high at one point, First Cumberland Presbyterian, like many other congregations around Chattanooga and the United States, has struggled to keep its membership up in recent years. Although, it still has a somewhat healthy 150 in attendance on most Sundays, Dr. Krueger said. The attendance included a much larger crowd recently for Christmas Eve, as people not even members of the church wanted to enjoy such a nice setting at a special time.

Dr. Krueger, who received his doctorate from the Presbyterian-based Columbia Theological Seminary, said the Cumberland Presbyterians are somewhat in the middle theologically and socially among the various Presbyterian denominations. “They were the first Presbyterian church to ordain women in ministry in 1889,” he said. “They are fierce champions of women in ministry, but in other social issues they don’t take hard and fast stands.”

First Cumberland Presbyterian has certainly also tried to be outward in its focus and has a very open-door policy regarding outside music groups around Chattanooga wanting to practice or perform there. Music director Gerald Peel, who was in the church during the tour, said the room has great acoustics for those who use it.

“It’s a big space, and because it’s a large space and it is enclosed, you might hear the reverb or reverberation,” he said. “It’s a long sanctuary, so if you’re in the middle and the music happens in the front, you can actively hear it travel past you to the rear. It speaks for itself, and if you’re in a room and just having a conversation, you’ll notice it, too.”

For everyone from lovers of good architecture to those who want to enjoy worship or music in a special place, this structure created in a drawing room in Knoxville has become quite a draw over the years in the Brainerd part of Chattanooga.

“I sometimes walk in the sanctuary and say, ‘Thank you, God,’ ” Dr. Krueger said.

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Click here to hear Dr. Courtney Krueger discuss the architecture of First Cumberland Presbyterian.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net