An architectural rendering shows the church as appeared when it opened in 1957. Note the height of the steeple.
Dear Vance: I drive by Mullins United Methodist Church almost every day, and it looks as if they added another “floor” to their steeple. The upper bricks don’t match the lower ones. Did they need more room for bells? — W.S., Memphis.
Dear W.S.: You have a keen eye. The upper level of the steeple of this impressive church, located at Mendenhall and Walnut Grove, doesn’t match the lower portion. That’s because the very top of the structure is crafted of fiberglass, molded to resemble bricks and mortar. It wasn’t done to make room for bells, exactly — but for BellSouth.
In the late 1990s, people began to object to the cell phone towers being erected all over town, with all shapes and sizes of equipment bolted to poles, mounted on building rooftops, and stuck everywhere they were needed. BellSouth, a major cell phone provider at the time, came up with a plan to “sheathe” their equipment by disguising antennae as pine trees (those are actually easy to spot), or concealing them inside manmade structures — such as the steeple of Mullins Methodist.
The church as it looks today. Another "floor" has been added to the top of the steeple.
That’s right; the topmost level of the church steeple houses a cluster of cell phone transmitters, whose signal can pass through the fiberglass façade. I wasn’t able to find any mention of the firm in charge of this project (it’s on my to-do list), but they certainly did a fine job, matching the brickwork exactly, and even adding additional windows. Over the years, the fiberglass hasn’t aged as much as the “real” bricks below, so you can now see they are different materials, but otherwise I think it’s a clever and attractive solution to the problem.
Mullins Methodist, its name honoring the congregation’s first minister (the Rev. Lorenzo Dow Mullins), has a long and fascinating history. It was established in 1845, when this now-busy intersection was nothing more than a crossing of dirt roads. The original building was a humble log cabin, but in 1897, Mullins Chapel was erected, a white clapboard structure that sheltered the congregation for half a century. The old chapel, which had deteriorated over the years, was demolished in the 1940s. Church members were so fond of it, however, that they had it rebuilt in 1947 with very minor changes.
What’s surprising — at least to me — is that the little wooden chapel, complete with rows of nice stained-glass windows, has endured, tucked into the middle of the church complex. Within a few years, however, as Memphis expanded eastward, the growing congregation needed more space, so the present-day modern-looking structure was constructed in 1957, with an education wing and gymnasium added in the early 1960s.
What’s also interesting is the old cemetery on the western side of the sanctuary. It’s rather unusual to find a church graveyard inside the Memphis city limits, but this was a “country” church when it was first established. The Mendenhall family and many other early members of the congregation are buried here.
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Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis Magazine, 65 Union Avenue, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103
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