01/10/2026
"Marching To Zion," Then-and-Now. This submission to the then-and-now series on Springville has to do with a church that is older than the state of Alabama. Alabama officially became a state on Dec 14, 1819. Mt Zion Baptist Church (now First Baptist Church of Springville) was organized on March 22, 1817 almost two years before Alabama was recognized as a state. The church's first preacher was Sion Blythe. He was born in Tennessee and had preached in North Carolina. At one point he had become disillusioned with being a preacher due to differences he held with other local preachers. He and his family left North Carolina in 1816 and settled along Canoe Creek in the area called Big Springs (Springville). He had told his wife to make no mention that he had previously been a preacher. A local lady managed to see through his reluctance to be a preacher and point blank ask him one day if he was indeed a minister and he couldn't lie and admitted that he was. So, he was once again preaching, this time in the newly formed Mt Zion Baptist Church. An historical marker displays the following text:
Originally chartered as Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
Charter member and first pastor was Sion Blythe
who served for 17 years.
The oldest church in St. Clair County.
Presbyterian and Methodist denominations used
the church building before turn of century.
Name of church changed to Springville Baptist, 1877
and to First Baptist Church, Springville, 1974
The photo with the yellow screen (sorry for the graininess) shows the location of the Presbyterain Church (still standing) and the Baptist Church at the opposite end of the block on Main Street. It sat a little further back from the street but is of similar size and construction. This church was torn down when the congregation relocated up the hill in the 1970s. The current location where the old church once stood is now used as a parking lot/playground area for the Middle School.
After the civil War, the freed slaves (which had previously worshiped with their slave owners) organized their own church which was also called Mt Zion. That church still exists on Mountain Drive, in Springville.
Further historical information about the church follows:
First Baptist Church of Springville, Alabama, organized in 1817, saw its first dedicated building constructed around 1847, a Greek Revival structure later modified, with a significant new sanctuary built on the same spot in 1920, replacing the original building that stood until then. The current campus, however, is a newer facility built in 1977, marking a major relocation.
Key Dates:
1817: Church organized as Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the oldest in St. Clair County, meeting in a schoolhouse.
~1847: First dedicated church building erected on Main Street.
1920: New sanctuary built, replacing the original structure at the same location.
1977: The current campus was established and built, a significant step away from the historic Main Street location, notes The Historical Marker Database and The Alabama Baptist
