Friendship Community Church
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Temple B'Nai Israel; Jewish Culture; Friendship Community Church
Friendship Community Church, an Evangelical Church, is located at 800 North Atlanta Avenue in Sheffield, Alabama.
Friendship Community Church is housed in what was once the first Jewish Temple in the Shoals area.
Sheffield was the home of what became Temple B'nai Israel from 1906 until 1953.
The original building had no indoor plumbing and the toilet facilities were outhouses. The temple was remodeled and updated in the 1940s when the choir loft and indoor toilets were added.
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Coleman, Edwin M., A History of Temple B'nai Israel Florence, Alabama, Centennial Celebration, 1906 - 2006.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Still Image and Text
Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Sheffield Land, Iron, and Coal Company; Alfred Hugler Moses; Jewish Culture
Alfred Hugler Moses, who was appointed the first mayor of Sheffield, Alabama by the governor of the state, moved to Sheffield in order to build the Sheffield Land, Iron, and Coal Company.
Moses, who had been a captain during the Civil War and a land developer after the war, wanted to create an industrial site on the banks of the Tennessee River. He believed the area would be more advantageous than Birmingham because of the coal and iron deposits in Franklin, Winston, and Walker counties and the proximity of a major waterway.
He and his brother, Mordecai, formed the Sheffield, Iron and Coal Company. with financing from a New York bank to build a railroad from Franklin County. The brothers started selling lots on May 8th, 1884.
Alfred, who was forty three at the time, moved from Montgomery to Sheffield to supervise the construction of streets and sidewalks, the building of a bank and school, and the first iron furnace in the area creating a land boom.
Over-speculation, competition, and a decline in the cost of pig iron caused the business financial difficulties. The brothers were able to pay their debts but the company was closed.
Alfred Moses died in St. Louis in 1918 and is buried in Montgomery, Alabama.
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Coleman, Erwin M., A History of B'nai Israel, Florence, Alabama, 1906 - 2006.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Illustration courtesy of the Sheffield Public Library.
Still Image and Text