Plymouth Congregational Church (Louisville, Ky.) Added Records, 1983-2019
Collection held by the Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky
Creator: Plymouth Congregational Church (Louisville, Ky.)
Title: Added records, 1983-2019
Rights: For more information regarding literary and copyright interest for this collection, contact the Collections Department at gro.l1776324869aciro1776324869tsihn1776324869oslif1776324869@hcra1776324869eser1776324869.
Size of Collection: 0.74 cubic feet
Location Number: Mss. BA P738a
Finding aid created by: Lynn Pohl
Date finding aid created: 31 March 2026
Date finding aid last updated: 31 March 2026
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of records of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, located in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. The church has a predominantly Black membership. Records include notes about the church’s history, deaconate board meeting minutes, church council and annual reports, financial reports, board of Christian education meeting minutes and reports, programs relating to members of the church, newsletters, and bulletins.
Related collections:
Plymouth Congregational Church (Louisville, Ky.) records, ca. 1916-1977, 1992 [Mss. BA P738].
Benjamin D. Berry Jr., Plymouth Settlement House and the Development of Black Louisville (1982) [285.8 B534].
Historical Note
Plymouth Congregational Church was founded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1877, when a group of congregants broke off from Center Street Church and identified themselves as Congregational Methodists. Services were first held on Jefferson Street between Ninth and Tenth, then later they were moved to a former synagogue on Preston Street before returning to a location on Ninth Street.
In 1891, the National Council of Congregational Churches’ American Missionary Association sent Rev. E. G. Harris, a recent graduate of Howard Divinity School, to Plymouth. Rev. Harris arranged the purchase of property for the church at the corner of Seventeenth and West Chestnut Streets. Rev. Harris was a member of the Interracial Commission, served as board president for the Colored Orphans’ Home, and was married to Rachel Davis, a librarian at the Western Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. He helped direct fundraising for the construction of a new Gothic Revival-style church at Seventeenth and West Chestnut, which was completed in 1929. Plymouth Congregational Church membership was primarily made up of Black middle- and upper-class families and included prominent figures in Louisville and Kentucky civil rights struggles such as Dr. James Bond, Lyman T. Johnson, and Hortense Houston Young.
Rev. Harris oversaw the establishment of the Plymouth Settlement House, which opened next door to the church in 1917 and served as an extension of the church’s mission. It was outfitted with offices, classrooms, a kitchen, a large auditorium, and a dormitory on the third floor for young Black women who came to Louisville to work as domestic laborers. Over time, programs at the settlement house included a theater group, a Boy Scout troop, camps, activities for teenagers and senior citizens, childcare services, and family counseling. Morris F. X. Jeff Jr. served as executive director of the Plymouth Settlement House in 1966-1972 and organized free adult education courses, campaigns to oppose housing segregation laws, and voter registration drives. In 1973, the name of the institution was changed to Plymouth Urban Center.
In the years after the 1957 formation of the United Church of Christ, Plymouth Congregational Church became Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ. The church remained at its location at 1630 West Chestnut Street until 2019.
Sources:
Benjamin D. Berry Jr., “The Plymouth Congregational Church of Louisville, Kentucky,” Phylon, 42 (1981), 224-32.
Plymouth Complex Individual Landmark draft designation report, Metro Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission, March 19, 2020:
https://louisvilleky.gov/document/pds20-landmark-0002plymouthdraftdesignationreportpdf
Folder/Item/Box List
Box 1
Folder 1: Church history file, 1986 and undated
Folder 2: Anniversary programs and flyers, 1987-2017
Folder 3: Diaconate board meeting minutes and records, 1983-1992
Folder 4: Deacon information, 2015-2017
Folder 5: Constitution as amended, ca. 2000s-2010s
Folder 6: Church council meeting reports and records, 2004-2008
Folder 7: Annual meetings and reports, 2007-2019
Folder 8: Board of Christian education meeting minutes and correspondence, 2007-2010
Folder 9: New member orientation information, 2009
Folder 10: Member recognition, birthday, and funeral programs, 2009-2016
Folder 11: Miscellaneous church and settlement house records (includes photograph album), ca. 2003-2016
Folder 12: Newsletters, 2008-2017
Box 2
Folder 13: Bulletins, 2010-2014
Folder 14: Bulletins, 2015
Folder 15: Bulletins, 2016
Folder 16: Bulletins, 2017
Folder 17: Bulletins, 2018-2019
Subject Headings
For details on how the below subjects appear in this collection, search the subject in the manuscript database at https://filsonhistorical.org/collections/manuscript-database/.
African American churches – Kentucky – Louisville.
African American clergy – Kentucky – Louisville.
African American neighborhoods – Kentucky – Louisville.
African Americans – Kentucky – Louisville.
Christian gay people.
Deacons – Kentucky – Louisville.
Harris, Rev. Everett G., 1866-1936.
Plymouth Settlement House (Louisville, Ky.)