Saint Andrew's Church, Birmingham

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham is a historic and vibrant parish within the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. Founded in 1902 as a Sunday school mission for children unable to reach the downtown Church of the Advent, it quickly grew to include full worship services and was officially incorporated in 1905. The church has been at its current location, at the corner of Eleventh Avenue and Twelfth Street South, since 1915-following the destruction of its original building by a tornado in 1913.

The brownstone church, completed that year, was designed by local architects Joy & Marriott in the style of traditional English Gothic parish churches. Its cornerstone was laid on Saint Andrew’s Day (November 30) in 1913 by Bishop Charles Beckwith. The building was later listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1986, reflecting its architectural and cultural significance.

Saint Andrew’s played a foundational role in the establishment of Holy Innocents Hospital for Children in 1911, which later evolved into the Children’s Hospital of Alabama. Though the parish remained modest in scale for much of the 20th century, it began to develop a distinctive Anglo-Catholic identity in the 1940s, emphasizing Eucharistic celebration and traditional liturgy-further strengthened by priests such as Fr. Robert Yancey Marlow and Fr. Robert Woodfield.

Today, Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church stands not just as a historic building but as a lively spiritual and cultural anchor in Birmingham-rooted in tradition, yet ever open to renewal and community engagement.