St. Paul’s Church in Conshohocken – A Celebration For 90 Strong Years

St. Paul’s Church in Conshohocken
A Celebration For 90 Strong Years
By Jack Coll
May 2nd, 2015

A celebration in honor of Conshohocken’s St. Paul’s Baptist Church 90 years of faith and commitment was held on Friday April 24, at the Doubletree by Hilton Valley Forge in Upper Merion Township. More than 130 members, family and friends turned out to break bread and enjoy an evening of music, fellowship and praise for the church. It’s great to have a way to help your church community, there are different ways for those who are interesting in fundraising for their church, for example, some find using something like https://get.tithe.ly/online-giving-for-churches as a good way to help.
The dignitaries were many and a number of them addressed the audience throughout the evening but the star of the celebration banquet was clearly St. Paul’s Church. Dr. S. Jean Wilson, the church archivist read a stunning history of St. Paul’s taking the audience back to 1925 when Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States and Louis Armstrong was just beginning his amazing music career.
Dr. Wilson noted that the Alan Wood Steel Company was in need of laborers, (By 1920 the Alan Wood Steel Company was producing more than eight percent of the nation’s output in steel). Reverend Marshall Lee along with labor agents recruited young black men from South Carolina where jobs were scarce and working at a Conshohocken steel mill provided opportunity for those willing to move north.
Many of the men who came to Conshohocken in the early 1920’s were forced to pitch tents and live in shanties on the Alan Wood Steel property just outside the Mogeetown section of Norristown. The men lived in the tent camps until they could afford housing in Conshohocken or Norristown. While living in these small camps Reverend J. F. Shepherd and Reverend Marshall W. Lee began small services for the men, and this resulted in Rev. Lee securing the former James Hall Mill with the blessing of the Alan Wood Company, (who owned the mill at that time) so services could be held in a more weather proof environment.
Dr. Wilson held the attention of the banquet guest throughout her reading of the history, she noted that in July 1925, the church became incorporated and when she described the building of St. Paul’s Church in 1927, you could hear a pin drop in the room.
“In August of 1927, the members of St. Paul’s Baptist Church authorized a building committee consisting of Reverend Marshall W. Lee, Chairman Watson Hill, Secretary Willie Jackson, Charles Beatty, and Jesse Nash to have erected for them a church building situated on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and Hallowell Street in Conshohocken. The structure of the building was made possible through the fundraising efforts of 45 dedicated members and the stone for the church was donated by the Alan Wood Steel Company in Conshohocken. On August 16, 1948, a properly executed Satisfaction of Mortgage was presented to Reverend Lee from the American Baptist Home Mission Society.”
Sister Janie Barr presented the Scripture Reading before dinner and Reverend John H. West, III, Pastor, Siloam Baptist Church in Norristown gave an emotional sermon following dinner. Other speakers and presenters throughout the evening included Deacon Wyatt Grove, Deaconess Beverly Tyler, Deacon Lucius Carter, Deacon Russell Graham, and Brother Kenneth Sykes. Deacon Tim Tyler was Master of Ceremony throughout the evening.
Sister Debbie Butler acknowledged a number of Citations presented to the church on the 90th anniversary including citations from Robert P. Casey, Jr., United States Senator, Vincent J. Hughes, State Senator, Pat Toomey, State Senator, Brendan F. Boyle, United States House of Representatives, Mary Jo Daley, State Representative, a proclamation from the Montgomery County Supervisors, and a framed proclamation from the borough of Conshohocken presented by Council President Paul McConnell and Conshohocken Chief of Police Michael Orler
During the 90 year history of St. Paul’s, the Church has been blessed with four Pastors including Reverend Marshall W. Lee who served for 51 years until his death in 1976, Reverend James A. Groves was ordained and installed as the second Pastor of St. Paul’s in 1977 and served until his passing in 1997. Reverend Leon Lowry served as Pastor from 1997 until 2004, when Rev Lowery departed the church Reverend Myrna E. Graham served as Acting Pastor until her retirement in 2010. Reverend Johnson served as Guest Minister until March 2014, on May 18, 2014 Reverend Dr. Marjorie Duncan Reed was installed as the official fourth pastor of St. Paul’s Baptist Church.
The long and storied history of St. Paul’s Church has been recognized by Pastor Marjorie Duncan Reed who took time to recognize and praise all the names of the families who came before her and thanked the good Lord for his part in St. Paul’s success.
Past and present family names sharing in the success of the church include the Graham’s, Groves, Brown’s, Fisher’s, Green’s, Barr’s, Mangum’s, Scott’s, Johnson’s, Mobley’s, William’s, Manson’s, Smith’s, Griffin’s, Watson’s, Dozier’s, James, Moore’s, Jackson’s, Etheridge’s Noble’s, Morgan’s, and so many more.
It’s interesting to note that Olive Lee Banks, daughter of Marshall Lee is the oldest living member of the church at 103 years old. Olive was born in 1912 when William H. Taft was President of the United States and thirteen years before the founding of St. Paul’s Church. We won’t mention the age of Russell Graham, oldest active member but we will tell you that he captained the 1950 undefeated Conshohocken High School Football Team along with James Groves. Graham was one of Conshohocken’s all time standout athletes back in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.
Throughout the course of the anniversary celebration St. Paul’s Church was referred to as many things with many different names including, “The church built on a rock,” “The church that sits on a hill,” “The church with a view,” “The church truly built by its members,” “The House of God,” and a number of other things that slip my mind. Over the past century or so many churches in Montgomery County have come and gone, but St. Paul’s Baptist Church has survived, not by luck, not with luck, but they have survived with the amount of love that fills the church weekly, the faith of the members has never swayed, the youngsters that have attended Sunday school at St. Paul’s, who grew up with a strong faith and have had children of their own, and repeated the process at the church on the hill. St. Paul’s has survived with the ups and downs and the grit of the parishioners, with the ability to toughen up in hard times.
St. Paul’s Baptist Church has survived the Great Depression, not only survived but thrived in, World War Two, the Korean War, Vietnam and all the other wars. St. Paul’s survived the decline of industry in Conshohocken, almost the very reason they were founded. St. Paul’s survived the trend of declining memberships as churches across the country in the 1990 began to close.
St. Paul’s Church has survived for a number of good reasons, strong leadership, Pastor’s with a vision and the strength to pursue their visions, they have survived by recognizing that youngsters are the future leaders who will determine the future of the church and above all, above all, they have survived because of their love towards one another and their strong belief in God, and God’s presence filled the banquet hall on Friday night, April 24. The 130 guests in attendance couldn’t help but feel the love and strength of the church.
And now the focus turns to the current Pastor Marjorie Duncan Reed, the focus on her leadership abilities, and her ability to spread the word of God to the membership. I get the feeling when we all return for St. Paul’s Baptist Church centennial celebration, Pastor Marjorie Duncan Reed will have made her mark on the church and community, and we will praise her as we have past church leaders.
Ten years from now, when we gather to celebrate St. Paul’s 100th birthday, perhaps we’ll all hold hands in a room filled with love and pride, and take a moment to reflect back a hundred years when Marshall Lee was just a young man, and accepted the challenge of the late Rev. Phillips and Rush Barr who encouraged Rev. Lee to “Take this work over.” Young Lee accepted the challenge, and the rest as they say, is history, St. Paul’s Baptist Church history.
One final note, it’s only fitting that we mention the Anniversary Banquet Committee who worked hard, and their labors provided a splendid evening. Sister Minnie Green and Dr. S. Jean Wilson co-chaired the event with a lot of help from Janine Barr, Debbie Butler, Wanda Dozier, Jewell Etheridge, Shirley Fields, Olivia Fields, Wyatt Grove, Gloria Jean Jackson, Clarence Johnson, Melisa Morgan, Verona Robinson, Tim Tyler and Joyce Mangum-Walker who was unable to attend due to illness.

Jack Coll is a long time writer and historian in Conshohocken
and is currently working on a book due out later this year.
Jack is seeking information for a chapter in the book on
African American history in Conshohocken.
Jack is seeking information pertaining to the names of families
and relatives who migrated from the southern states in the early
and mid 1920’s to work in Conshohocken’s Steel mills.

If you can provide Jack with any information or family histories
for inclusion in the book it would be very much appreciated.
Contact Jack at 324 Fayette Street, Coll’s Custom Framing,
Or by calling at 610-825-7072

jcollframe@aol.com