Jeff Street History

The Early Holcombe Mission (1881 - 1900)

Steve Holcombe (1835 – early 1900s) began The Holcombe Mission in 1881. Holcombe was raised on Shippingport, Kentucky (before it was made into an island by the building of the Portland Canal, just west of downtown Louisville).

Holcombe, as a child, was what we would call today a juvenile delinquent. He grew up to be a riverboat gambler, rambler, gold miner and murderer. His life was a wreck and he was relatively infamous in Louisville and the southeast for his crude exploits.

Holcombe’s life was changed by the love of a dedicated wife and the power of a very patient God. When Holcombe “got saved,” he made a big turnaround, from gambling ne’er-do-well to devoted husband and father and faithful Christian.

When Holcombe became a Christian, he was determined to do penance for his evil former life by reaching out to what he called the “wretched and the outcast” that were much like him. And so he began a mission to the city’s derelicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, and homeless in Louisville’s east downtown, not far from Jeff Street’s current location.

Holcombe, with ecumenical support from many local churches and city residents, made quite an impression with his work. He even had a book written about him. Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler: His Life and Work, was written by Reverend Gross Alexander and published in 1888 by the Press of the Courier-Journal Job Printing Company and is a very compelling read.

The book says that the Holcombe Mission was so successful that it was even a bit of a tourist attraction, drawing Christians who were visiting Louisville to our mean streets to see the work being done by this reformed riverboat gambler and murderer! Holcombe managed the Mission (which soon became the Union Gospel Mission, thanks to support from many local churches) off and on from 1881 to 1906.

After Holcombe (~1900 - 1941)

After Rev. Holcombe resigned from the Union Gospel Mission, a woman by the name of Elizabeth Cardwell took his place. She served as director for 24 years, and then passed the torch to another woman named Maude Abner, who served for seven years (their stories can be found in the book, The Story of the Union Gospel Mission 1886-1944; Mayes Printing Company, 1944).

The Long Run Years (~1941 - 1991)

After Maude Abner resigned in 1941, the Long Run Baptist Association came in, and in one of the volunteer’s words, “took over” the Mission. They renamed it the Central Baptist Mission, and interestingly enough, the first director that they hired was also a woman, Asenath Brewster.

That was around 1941, which is the same time that a young Baptist seminary student by the name of Clarence Jordan came along and took interest in the inner-city. He and his buddy, Fred Tucker, took a trip to Chicago to see some of the ministries there, and when he came back, he began to work at the Union Gospel Mission, now the Central Baptist Mission, and at the Sunshine House which, when he became Director of Missions for the Long Run Baptist Association, he promptly renamed the Baptist Fellowship Center.

Jordan worked alongside Asenath Brewster. She directed, and he provided the preachers. One of the preachers that he provided for the Mission was one of his closest friends, Rev. Henlee Barnette (his time at the Union Gospel Mission is mentioned in Barnette’s book, A Pilgrimage of My Faith: My Story; Mercer University Press, 2004).

Barnette was followed by a number of directors and pastors. (And, as a side note, it’s interesting when you look at our history to see that it’s been the women directors and pastors who have stayed the longest.)

Mabel Mitchell, who was at our church longer than anyone else, remembered some of the pastors that came and went. She told us that when she first moved to Louisville, the first church to visit her was the Central Baptist Mission, so she decided to go there. She didn’t really like the pastor, though, so she didn’t go often.

Just a year or two later after Mabel joined, in 1964, the Central Baptist Mission merged with the Faith Baptist Mission, which was located at 803 Walnut Street, which is now Muhammad Ali Boulevard, and moved into the brand new Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel building.

That building, at 733 East Jefferson Street, was our last home. We were there for 27 years. Rev. Marvin Jackson was the pastor then. Mabel remembers Rev. Jackson very kindly, and told us that he was the one who “dunked her.”

There continued to be a lack of continuity in leadership in the Mission. A series of pastors and directors came and went. There were some exciting things that happened through those years, though, and the Chapel was on the cutting edge in many ways. They started the first Senior Citizen Nutrition Program in the county, they had rifle training for the children from Clarksdale Housing (an urban housing project run by the City of Louisville, for those in need of housing assistance), and they did “Godwagons,” which were wagons full of refreshments and games and Bible story materials that they would take into Clarksdale and share with the children.

By 1979, the Chapel became a place where students from the Southern Baptist Seminary did ministry during the school year, and who then would depart when school was out, leaving an active membership of about seven people including “the ladies,” Buna Wynn, Grace Nickens, Fannie Flood, Mary Burgess, and Mabel Mitchell.

One of those students who came to minister, Claude Drouet, didn’t leave when the school year ended, however, and asked his friend, Mike Elliott, to come and lead music at the Chapel. Mike and his pregnant wife, Janice, came a few times and decided to stay when they were approached by “the ladies.” As Mike tells it, one morning the ladies stood behind Buna Wynn, who was great in size and in tobacco stains, as she cornered Mike and Janice in the hall. “Here,” she said, thrusting an envelope into Janice’s hand. “We collected this for you and yer baby.”

When they looked into the envelope and realized that it was full of money - realized what these women who lived on fixed incomes had done for them - Janice broke down in tears and they decided then and there that they would stay.

They tried to give it back, but Buna insisted. “Take it,” she said in her Appalachian Mountain voice. Mike became the Pastor/Director, and he and Janice began a slew of programs, attracted a slew of seminary students, and helped the little Chapel congregation to grow in number and in vision.

During that time, the congregation began several ministries to the homeless and marginalized. These include:

• A morning Drop-In center, which we still do (now called The Hospitality Program), providing a safe and welcoming place for the homeless to visit,

• The Phoenix Project, which was a residential program that became a model for Norma’s House (a project developed later by members and friends of Jeff Street), and

• Ministries to prisoners, who were allowed to come and worship with us and then stay for a lunch that we called Breakaway.

A judge decided that it wasn’t smart to let the prisoners worship with us and quit allowing them to come, so we changed Breakaway to The Welcome Table, and began to serve homeless men and women instead. Also during that time, Jeff Street staff founded a Habitat for Humanity group here in Louisville after being given a house on Muhammad Ali that they didn’t know what to do with.

The Church Covenant was written by church members in 1982, and is a good reflection of who the Chapel was at that time.

Life at Jefferson Street Chapel in those days involved a lot of work with the homeless, as well as peace and justice work. The children and youth who were part of the church then were there mostly from the Clarksdale Housing Project, across the street from the Mission.

Jeff St Baptist Community at Liberty (1991 - Today)

Rev. Cindy Weber, who became our Associate Pastor in 1984, was installed as Pastor in 1991. The Long Run Baptist Association had threatened to kick us out of the building if we called a woman pastor, which they did. After having dealt with this particular issue for four years, it was a healthy move for us to step away from the Association and from the Southern Baptist Convention. We found our new home, which was a machine shop one block away on 800 East Liberty Street.

Throughout Jeff Street’s history, we’ve never been a large church - mostly averaging fewer than 80 in attendance on any given Sunday.

We’ve never been a rich church, being made up of the homeless, the mentally ill, the working poor, and – more so in these last 20 years – teachers, mental health workers, social workers, labor and justice organizers, and those working in environmental fields: sort of the seamy side of the working class.

What we have been is there. We’ve consistently been there, on the frontlines of Louisville’s poverty issues, homeless concerns, and justice and peace issues. What a blessed history to remember! What a future yet to tell!