Sunday, June 9, 2013

Churches of the Presidents

 Churches have been the center pieces of many American communities since before our founding. It's often the biggest building in small towns, which makes them logical places to hold town meeting, set up voting booths, and various other parties and functions. All of this is of course secondary to their primary function as a house of worship, a place to gather with other believers, and to recharge your faith batteries. You know, Church stuff.

Traveling around the country seeing various Presidential sites I have stumbled upon afew churches with Presidential connections. Here they are.


United First Parish Church in Quincy, MA is the burial site of both John Adams and John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams was also a member.



This small church is on the property of The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, TN.




McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville, TN is the site of James K. Polk's funeral
    



First (now Downtown) Presbyterian Church in Nashville was the site of James K. Polk's Inaguaration as Governor of Tennessee. Andrew Jackson was also a member.








The front of First Presbyterian Church in Nashville




The Church of the Presidents in Long Branch, NJ has been attended by 7 different Presidents.It now seems to be under renovation.

As the sign says, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, B. Harrison, McKinley and Wilson all attended services here. President Garfield died just a few blocks away.



There was a very cold rain falling on me when this photo was taken. So dispite the look on my face I was happy to of found it.

Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, NJ at a house owned by the local church. The house was reserved for the minister and his family to live in. Grovers father was the minister which explains why Grover was born there. The church is no longer standing, but this is the church that sites on the site of Clevelands fathers church.




President McKinley's church in Canton, OH

President McKinley's church in Canton, OH


Historical marker in front of Theodore Roosevelts boyhood church in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York




Boyhood Church of Theodore Roosevelt. Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York





Calvin Coolidges church in Plymouth, VT

The Coolidges pew is marked by the flag




Quacker meeting house in West Branch, Iowa that Herbert Hoover attended as a child




Inside Hoovers Quacker Meeting House

The small chapel in Abilene, Kansas in which the Eisenhowers are buried.


Plains Baptist Church in Plains, GA is the church in which Jimmy Carter was Baptized. He attended here until 1977 when there was a conflict with the pastor about a black man not being allowed to speak there. That's when he changed churches



Maranatha Baptist Church. Plains, GA.Current church of President Carter. He teaches Sunday School here. I got to attend a class in June 2013

Miss Jan goes through the ins and outs of how to conduct yourself around the former President.


President Carter about to teach Sunday School


Tampico, IL. Ronald Reagan grew up with a Catholic Father and a Protestant Mother. This is the church that he would attend with his Mother.


This is the Catholic church that Ronald Reagan attended with his father in Tampico, IL



This is the First Christian Church in Dixon, IL in which Ronald Reagan was baptized at age 11

 



Front of the First Christian Church in Dixon, IL




St. Martins church in Houston, TX is the current church of former President George H. W. Bush





Courtyard at St. Martins in Houston