Westminster Presbyterian Church Centennial Books

As the story goes, they observed the beautiful fields across the Higginbotham farm, blue from the blossoms of the native chicory. Someone suggested calling the post office “ Bluefields, ” (with an S) and that name was written on the form. On January, 11, 1886, the post office, established as Bluefields, opened. Later, the S was dropped, and we were known as Bluefield. On November 16, 1889, Bluefield was incorporated as a city,

with the census showing a population of 600. Twenty - one years later, by 1910, Bluefield had a population of over 11,000 making it the fifth largest city in the state. The substantial growth in twenty years can be attributed to the coal and railway business.

Although we ’ ve lived “ all over ” and traveled the world, Westminster Church is where we gathered lifetime friends and left our hearts.

Donna Chadwick

All across the country, populations, businesses, and churches were being established in downtown areas. Only the extremely wealthy owned their own automobile back then, so everything needed to be close by – as was true in downtown Bluefield – the stores, the schools, the churches, and the nicest homes, too. I think it ’ s wonderful to see that in the midst of this booming city, churches were being established. I ’ m sure that wasn ’ t the case in all cities. I ’ m sure there were those where there were no churches, or very few. But in downtown Bluefield, during those early years, I count twelve churches that were established, and ten of them are still in existence. Twelve downtown churches (and I could be wrong, I may have unintentionally left out one.) Now the year that I ’ m including with each church does not necessarily indicate when the church building (that is pictured here) was constructed. The date I ’ m referencing is for when the church was organized. Most churches did not immediately have a building when they started, and several of them had major fires and had to be replaced. As I drove around and took some of these photos, I was very thankful for cornerstones and historical markers that had the dates listed. Four African American Churches were established in the early years of Bluefield –

Since leaving, I have never attended a church that felt as much like “ home. ” People at Westminster spent time together, loved each other, served each other, knew each other, and allowed themselves to be known.

Rusty Chadwick

Scott Street Baptist

John Stewart U.M.C.

First A.M.E. Zion

Mt. Zion Baptist

1890

1888

1907

1922

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