Pictured here is the meetinghouse and congregation of Campbell Street Church of Christ, Louisville, KY, on 3 June 1923, the last Sunday before the congregation moved to a new facility on Haldeman Avenue. Standing on the steps holding his Bible is longtime Campbell Street minister Marshall Clement Kurfees. Though an able author and editor, Kurfees preached for Campbell Street and Haldeman Avenue churches for over 45 years, among the longer tenures in Stone-Campbell congregations.  I’ve cropped and enlarged three portions of this large (over 8 x 10) photograph.  One shows Kurfees amid the congregants standing on the front steps; another shows the church sign on the front yard and the third shows the stone sign high up on the front facade.

This image reveals one way the Campbell Street Church advertised itself to passersby on Campbell Street: by use of a large blackboard indicating times of services and titles of Kurfees’ sermons.  Striving against sectarian tendencies, the congregation used as their name simply Campbell Street Church (and later Haldeman Avenue Church).  The stone inset into the brick facade reads ‘The Church of Christ, 1876.’

According to the donor, this building stood until about 1996.

Do you have additional items from Campbell Street or Haldeman Avenue churches, such as bulletins, directories, membership rosters or other photographs?  Do you have anything from M. C. Kurfees?  If you would like to discuss how Center for Restoration Studies preserves rare items such as this photograph, or how we support teaching and study in Stone-Campbell history, please contact me at mxi13a@acu.edu.