History of Augusta Churches
As of 2019, there are over three hundred churches in Augusta, a third of which are Baptist. In fact, the Southern Baptist Convention was born in a Baptist church on Greene Street in 1845. That building, originally established for a Baptist Praying Society in 1820 was reconstructed with a Beaux Arts style edifice in 1902. For the purposes of this guide, I've chosen a few churches which are related in our manuscript collections at Augusta University.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The first church established in Augusta was St. Paul's Episcopal Church, built in 1749 on the location of the old Fort Augusta. Rebuilt as Fort Cornwallis, the Gothic Revival building burned down during the Revolutionary War. The fourth iteration of the church was burned down during the Great Augusta Fire of 1916. The current church building, located on the corner of 6th and Reynolds Street, was dedicated in 1920.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Cultural Center, formerly Sacred Heart Catholic Church, was dedicated in 1900. Due to flooding, two world wars, and constant maintenance demands, the church held its last mass in 1971. It was then restored as a facility to host cultural events by the non-profit organization Knox Ltd. in 1987. The building still stands as one of the finest examples of Victorian masonry work in the state of Georgia.
Church of the Good Shepherd
Church of the Good Shepherd, established in 1869, continues to serve the Augusta community today. The first building was wooden, replaced with a brick structure on the same site in 1879. Located on Walton Way, near the Summerville campus of Augusta University, the Church of the Good Shepherd is celebrating its one hundred fiftieth anniversary in 2019 while the Episcopal Day School next to the church is celebrating its seventy-fifth.
Other Religious Institutions
Although the majority of religious institutions in Augusta are Christian, there are also places of worship for Jews and Muslims.
From 1880 to 1910, many Jews emigrated to Augusta from the city of Kobren, which was then in Russia or Poland. They formed a congregation in 1889 which met over a drugstore at Tenth Street and Broad Street. This serves as the beginning of Adas Yeshurun Synagogue, which celebrated its one hundredth anniversary in 1989. The current synagogue is located on Johns Road. There are other synagogues in the area, including Congregation Children of Israel on Walton Way, Chabad of Augusta on Old Furys Ferry Road, Wat Satidham on Old Waynesboro Road, and Congregation Beth Shalom across the Savannah river in North Augusta, South Carolina.
The Islamic Society of Augusta has been serving the community since 1976. In 2012, it moved to new location on Old Evans Road, and is now known as the Islamic Community Center. The center provides a prayer hall, conference room, study space, and a full sized basketball court.
Legacy of Religious Institutions in Augusta
Religious institutions have played a huge role in the formation of Augusta and its citizens, from the colonial settlers of the mid-eighteenth century to the mass immigration of Irish Catholics and African-Americans seeking spiritual enrichment of their own. To this day, religion is the backbone of Augusta, as it is in so many other communities in the South.
Postcards from Augusta University Special Collections (LPS 001, Loose photograph collection)