My Final Stop: North Avenue Presbyterian Church - APC Sacred Spaces Tour

North Avenue Presbyterian Church was my 5th and final stop for the Atlanta Preservation Center's first "Sacred Spaces" Tour on September 25.



My first visit was in the fall of 1968 when my fraternity's "God Squad" visited. My latest visit was for Kate's (friend of the family) wonderful wedding.


If there is a church on a busier noisier stretch of Peachtree Street, I don't know it. Imagine a line of Harley's cruising Peachtree. This is the North Avenue facade. Trucks need to "gun it" to make it up the hill.

There are interesting stories about the mix of styles. In fact, they planned to demolish the sanctuary in favor of the more elaborate style of the building behind it. The Depression intervened. The change of roof materials show the expansion to the sanctuary.

This is where Westminster School started. It's traditional that the pastor of NAPC serve on the Westminster board as Senior Pastor, D. Scott Weimer, does today. Many prominent Atlantans worshiped here.


The Peachtree facade is not overwhelming. This is the way most folks see it, when the light at North is red and you have a chance to look.


It's pretty common for folks to sleep beneath the arches. The Atlanta Task Force for The Homeless is down the street and this is a downtown church.

The first service in this building was on Thanksgiving Day, 1900. The granite is from Stone Mountain, owned for a time by the Venable family, church members then and now.

They don't claim the sanctuary as the most beautiful or the biggest. An expansion put the big transept windows and oculus a bit off. It not something you can't put your finger on.

You notice the windows.


The big north window.


The big south window.


The pre-expansion windows are from Tiffany.


The "newer" windows toward the chancel are from Willet.


This is a Willet.


Windows of a different era and style in the Narthex.






A modern window in a lobby.


Thanks to Carlisle Young (center) our tour guide from North Avenue PC for the tour and to Mickey Leso (right) volunteer from the Atlanta Preservation Center.