Bream Memorial Presbyterian
Church
Organized 1883
We invite you to learn about Bream Church in person. With all other Christian congregations, we center our life and work on being faithful followers of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Still, with all the other Christian congregations in our community, what sets Bream apart?
First: We are a long established congregation located on a visible corner of Washington Street and Ohio Ave on the West Side of Charleston. We meet in a beautiful facility with abundant space and parking. Our congregation, founded in 1883, with a sanctuary built in 1910, has long been a beacon in the city. Our preschool, the Bream Center, has been the beginning of education for countless children for nearly 60 years and is the largest preschool in Charleston with some 170 children enrolled.
Second: Our worship services blend Christian tradition with the present. We offer two Sunday worship times, at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. with a Sunday School hour for all ages at 10:00 a.m. Our early 9:00 a.m. service is a smaller, casual gathering in our chapel with contemporary choruses and the opportunity for interaction. Our 11:00 a.m. service in the sanctuary is traditional with choir, pipe organ and liturgy. Both services focus on a message grounded in the Bible and geared for living in this day and age.
Third: We strive to have an outstanding educational program for children. With our Sunday School (for adults as well as children), Children’s Worship Center during the 11:00 a.m. service, and Wednesday LOGOS program that combines Bible learning, music, recreation and a dinner for preschool through Middle School, we seek to provide a strong Christian foundation for children.
Fourth: We seek to provide support and fellowship for seniors. With our active Presbyterian Women, senior adult classes, exercise program and fellowship opportunities, senior adults play a vital role in Bream church.
Fifth: We have compassion for those in need in our community. With our food pantry, community care fund, ongoing work with Habitat For Humanity, financial support of RCCR and Covenant House, partnership with Watt’s elementary school, host to the Children’s Therapy Clinic and support of West Side Main Street renewal, we put our faith into action to make a difference in the lives of people around us.
Sixth: We are a mid-size congregation that provides the chance to be noticed without being another face in the crowd or the only newcomer to be pounced upon. We strive to quickly learn names and faces so the visitors may become regulars.
Seventh: We believe the message and the ministry of our pastoral team is special and exciting. Reverends Bob and Lynn Wood each bring 27 years of pastoral experience to Bream church. Lynn leads our excellent education program while Bob handles most of the worship leadership.
Please come and experience Bream church.
Email Pastor Wood
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BREAM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Compiled by Rev. Robert Wood, March 2004
In 1883 Dr. J.C. Barr, was pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston. He had a passion for home missions - reaching out to surrounding areas with the good news of the love of God in Jesus Christ. He was especially mindful of the growing area west of the Elk River that was identified as Elk City. He had in his congregation a young businessman named Graves Hubbard who shared an interest in the spiritual opportunities across the Elk River on the West Side.
Dr. Barr encouraged and challenged Graves Hubbard to start a Mission Church on the West Side, promising his support and participation. Furthermore, Dr. Barr hoped that land could be secured for a new church from the estate of Major James Bream and his wife Mary. This property was under the authority of Rev. Stuart Robinson, a Presbyterian minister who had married the Bream’s granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Brigham in 1841 and had become one of the executors of the Bream estate. This included a piece of property identified as the Bream family cemetery south of then Charleston Street, now Washington Street. It was here that Major Bream was briefly buried until his body was moved to Spring Hill Cemetery.
Major Bream was a wealthy London merchant who married Mary Shapton Lovell and came to America in 1798. They eventually moved to the Kanawha Valley and purchased property called the Bullitt Survey west of the Elk River in 1814. They built a home in the vicinity of the Spring Street Bridge and the Major installed a ferry.
Returning to 1883, on October 3 construction began on the Glen Oak Mission on Bigley Avenue. When completed, Dr. Barr and Dr. Booker, another pastor of First Presbyterian conducted services there once a month. In 1891, the Glen Elk Mission called its first pastor, Rev. B.F. Hutton and paid him $25 a month. He stayed for about three years, and two other short term pastors followed, J.W. Lafferty and Robert Mann. In 1899, Rev. J.H. Williams arrived and stayed until 1906. During this time the simple frame structure became too small for the growing congregation and "There were times when the singing of hymns had competition from the pigs squealing under the floor."
In 1901, Stuart Robinson conveyed the Bream family cemetery lot and adjoining property to the Southern Presbyterian Church with the provision that a building for the purpose of Godly worship had to be built within 10 years. In 1902, Graves Hubbard and others laid the cornerstone of Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church. The building, now identified as the Parlor was erected for a sum of $6,000 and was debt free. In 1903, the Dickenson auditorium as completed that included a gym (the only one on the West Side) and classrooms. This sat in the area now occupied by the chapel and education wing.
In 1907, Rev, J Dawson Henery arrived. However, he died within a few months of tuberculosis at the age of 25. In 1908 Dr. Charles Meyers came and the church had 200 members and 600 in Sunday School. When Dr. Meyers resigned in 1916 the church had nearly 900 members.
It was during this period that the sanctuary was built in 1910-1911. This beautiful structure was carefully crafted and included a wrap-around balcony known as a gallery where then, as now, young people like to sit, believing that they are unobserved by parents and pastor.
In October of 1918 the pipe organ was installed. One half was paid for by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. (This organ was rebuilt in 1975 and again in 2006.) It is one of the outstanding organs in the Kanawha Valley.
In 1920, Dr. Frank Brown became pastor and in the 16 years he was here the church grew to 2300 members. In 1932 the Hubbard building was erected. In 1937, Joe B. Overmeyer became the pastor and remained until 1960, the longest pastorate of Breams history. It was under Dr. Overmeyer that Bream became instrumental in starting seven mission congregations, including Lydia Robson, Rebecca Littlepage, McKinnon Chapel and Hobbs Chapel, now Grace Covenant.
During WWII, 394 men and women from Bream served in the armed services and 13 sacrificed their lives. In 1946, the membership climbed to its highest level of 2,900 members, the fourth largest Presbyterian Church in the Southern states.
The educational building and chapel were built in 1955 at a cost of $450,000. The Bream Center first started as a kindergarten and now a preschool and day care is in this facility. In 1968 the Activities Building with a full size basketball court with stands was erected. The Children’s Therapy Clinic, a free clinic for handicapped children is now housed in this building.
In the 1960's Bream pastors included Rob McNeill, Dunbar Ogden and Jack Payne - all vocal proponents of civil rights. This, and other community changes, led to a sharp decline in membership. In 1969, John Parks came as pastor, a man known for his gentleness.
In 1975 new stained glass windows in the sanctuary were installed, crafted by the Willet Company of Philadelphia using Blenko glass from Milton.
Pastors following Rev. Parks included Bob Booker 1984-1988 and Ron Buckalew 1989-1996. In 1997, the church took a new turn by calling a pastor out of California, Rev. Bob Wood. The church also hired his wife, the Rev. Lynn Wood as a parish associate. Today Bream Church places its emphasis on outstanding preaching, service to the community and a vibrant children's ministry.