Remembering Our Past Mini Blog

Westminster Presbyterian Church, originally named Moore Memorial Presbyterian Church, was created by First (now Downtown) Presbyterian Church to meet the needs of the growing population on the western edge of Nashville. A site was purchased at 1505 Broadway, near the current site of Beaman Toyota. The new church was organized on November 23, 1873 as Moore Memorial Presbyterian Church, named for the First Presbyterian minister Reverend Thomas Verner Moore, who had encouraged its development. For reference, Vanderbilt University was also…

Rev. W. Murdoch Macleod (1934-1940) grew the congregation membership to 1,174, in spite of constant appeals for the $100,000 building fund. Young men like Henry Goodpasture and Sam K. Harwell, Jr. led the monumental task of getting money out of a congregation still caught in the bite of the Depression. At that time, West End Methodist was church farthest out West End Avenue; in fact, there was no church in a 15-square mile area lying west of West End Methodist.…

Dollar by dollar, inch by inch, the Moore Memorial congregation neared its goal. On October 23, 1937, they broke ground for their new church, and Miss Mattie Thompson, only surviving charter member of Moore Memorial, was present. By October 19, 1938, the shell of Westminster Presbyterian Church stood–with no heating plant, no plumbing, no permanent floor, no pulpit or pews. The congregation had spent $73,691 and would need $38,000 more to finish it. Sam K. Harwell, Sr. and his family…

On April 16, 1938, the Nashville Banner announced on its front page (above the fold!) that Westminster Church would seal the cornerstone of its new building (under construction) on Easter Sunday, April 17. A copy of the newspaper (see photo below) was found in the time capsule inserted in the cornerstone that Sunday. From the Nashville Banner article: Church to Seal Cornerstone on Easter Vesper services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 o’clock in the auditorium of the new…

After the move to 3900 West End Avenue, Westminster’s congregation grew rapidly. By 1940, the church’s membership exceeded 1,100 but the facility had no education building. During World War II, with shortages of building material and workmen, Westminster purchased a residence at 3810 West End Avenue, less than a block from the church. There they crowded over five hundred children and young people in every corner from the basement to the attic for classes every Sunday morning. The minister succeeding…

Dr. Armand L. “Buck” Currie served as Moore Memorial’s pastor from 1930 to 1933 and returned to serve as Westminster’s pastor from 1949 to 1966.  By the time Dr. Currie returned, the membership was over 1,800 and the church’s annual budget topped $100,000. Under Dr. Currie’s leadership, Westminster began holding two worship services, at 8:30 and 11 am. When the church received an anonymous donation of $50,000 to purchase a pipe organ, Thomas H. Webber, Jr. was hired as minister of…

Rev. Dr. Daniel Patrick McGeachy III was Westminster’s pastor from 1966 – 1972. The membership reached 2,000, even as the rise of Cold War politics, civil rights movements, student protests, and the Vietnam war all profoundly affected American society and our church. The Westminster Session voted to expand its benevolence giving to 50 percent of the annual budget.  In 1966, twenty members of Westminster joined with members of other local denominations to create the “Marketplace.” This ecumenical project was supported…

In 1972, the Rev. T. Hartley Hall, IV joined Westminster as senior pastor. Dr. Hall was a man of singular intellect and Calvinist sensibility. He was known for scholarly, well-prepared and Biblically-based sermons. Hall noted, “…you equip a person to handle decisions in the framework of Christian commitment. You don’t want the church to be a hospital for the dying. You want it to be supportive for those who are in the midst of the conflict.” During his tenure, the…

In December 1981, the Reverend Dr. Kyser Cowart Ptomey, Jr. was installed as Westminster’s senior pastor, inviting all to call him “KC.” While engaging the congregation with his powerful preaching, KC also restored numerous liturgical practices of the early Church that had been abandoned during the Protestant Reformation and supported the early Reformed practice of singing psalms in worship. At his suggestion, non-inclusive language was removed from the liturgy.  KC passionately believed in the civil rights movement. One Sunday in…