Warren Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Tracy City

Warren Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Tracy City. . was located on this site. The denomination was formed in 1810 following revival of the Christian gospel in the second wave of the Great Awakening. Settlers from Scotland and Ireland of Scott descent were mainly followers of John Calvin as embodied in Presbyterianism of John Knox., The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. required its ministers to be ordained with decrees from its seminary at Princeton University. Ministers so ordained and educated were reluctant to serve in remote Appalachia, specifically the frontier region of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Scotch and Scotch-Irish descendants who had settled in Appalachia broke from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and accepted ministers with lesser education who were willing to serve them., Warren Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church was established circa 1890 as part of the Elk Presbytery (later absorbed into the McMinnville Presbytery). Its first Clerk of the Session and often times minister was William Edward Tillett, a Tracy City dentist and photographer. The congregation peaked in membership to 92 in 1893 but by 1915 had dropped to 5. On March 15, 1917 the McMinnville Presbytery adopted its Legal Committee's report "that the church is abandon; no organization, no eldership, deacons, nor active members; no report to Presbytery nor dues for a number of years; the house fast decaying and having been in the past having been used for picture shows and gambling resorts and not long ago came very near being destroyed by fire... This Presbytery, first declare Tracy City or Warren Memorial a vacant field, an abandon church." A sale of the church property to E.C. Norvell in a former action was reaffirmed., E.C. Norvell maintained a furniture store and funeral parlor in the Masonic Temple on Railroad Avenue. When that building was destroyed by fire in 1935 he moved some of the stock that survived the fire and funeral supplies to the former church building. During the Great Depression the government stored potatoes, vegetables and other food products in the building for distribution to needy persons., A beauty shop and other small shops operated within the building after its abandonment as a church. Rummage sales were conducted within its walls., On June 2, 1932 the Book Lovers Club, that had acquired over 1,000 books and was the precursor of the Tracy City Library, moved his books into the building. The building became the Tracy City Community House and Public Library. Later the Public Library was moved to Colyar House, known as the Tracy City Courthouse, where several Grundy County Offices were maintained. The Warren Memorial Cumberland Presbyterian Church building continued as a community center until the end wall of the building was removed as well as flooring to house the Tracy City fire engine. In 1958 the entire structure was razed., Some of the information in this plaque is from research of Jackie Layne Partin.