
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994                   TAG: 9411080005
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Long

AT 50, NORTHSIDE PRESBYTERIAN HAS COME INTO ITS OWN

In the middle of World War II, when Blacksburg was a much smaller place, a neighborhood on the north edge of town was known informally as "Potlikker Flats." It was home to many families in which the breadwinner worked in the less glamorous jobs at Virginia Tech, or in factories turning out products for the war effort.

Among the children in the neighborhood was Martha Hall, who went with her grandmother to a Wesleyan church. Now Martha McMahan, she is a major source of information about the 50 years of Northside Presbyterian Church, which last month celebrated its half century.

Northside's minister, the Rev. Dr. Hugh B. Springer, says the congregation has long since shed its identity as a chapel of the much larger and older Blacksburg Presbyterian Church downtown. Its membership now includes folk from all working levels and ages. McMahan has been its secretary for 25 years.

But in 1944, Martha Hall was one of the little girls who drew the concern of Clara Underhill. Underhill's work took her to the growing, suburban fringes of town, and, as an active member of Blacksburg Presbyterian, she thought there should be a Sunday school for children closer to their homes.

Along with two other members of the big church, Janet Cameron and Hallie Hughes, she arranged for a meeting place with Helms Linkous, who owned a small building on Progress Street, where now stands Northside Presbyterian.

The three women, who are gone now, are remembered as the "foremothers" of the congregation.

Hall and her family eventually joined the Presbyterians along with a few who came out from the older church to help get the chapel started.

Five years later, when the inroads of evangelical groups in the neighborhood threatened the continuation of the tiny band of Presbyterians, the founding women asked leaders in the old Montgomery Presbytery and in the downtown parish for some financial support to build a small cinder-block building.

Much of the work was done by members. Growth was slow; only 31 were on the rolls in 1964 when there was a part-time pastor.

Throughout this period, the three-acre lot was marked by an oak tree dating to Indian times. It became symbolic of growth. By 1966, with a membership of more than 40, the group took the name of Northside Presbyterian Church with its own ruling elders. Two years later, the Rev. Wilkes O'Brien became its pastor and in time moved to full-time status. He was followed in 1973 by the Rev. Richard B. Vines.

The explosion of Blacksburg's population in the 1970s helped Northside, as did the decisions of church leadership to expand the building. A small enlargement in the 1960s was followed 18 years ago by the erection of a larger worship area.

Springer, 54 and a former campus chaplain, became the third full-time minister in 1986. At that time, two of the women who founded the church were still living.

If all goes well, Springer said, ground will be broken next spring for a $400,000 enlargement for the building. An unfinished lower level will be upgraded and what is now a courtyard on the Progress Street side will be incorporated into the present worship area.

The character of Northside as a church, where more attention is given to ministry than to following a traditional architectural concept, is revealed in the plans. Springer noted that while most new churches start with multi-purpose facilities with movable chairs, they get out of this mode as soon as possible and settle in with fixed pews and other furniture denoting their devotion to what they consider a church should look like.

At Northside, when the new building is done, the worship space still will be open for community events. The downstairs will remain as the collection place for the Christmas Store.

Outreach includes not only such New River Valley projects as the store, the food pantry, Habitat for Humanity and many other ecumenical programs in which individual members participate, but also the international partnership with the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Rio Chiquito in Honduras, one of Northside's distinctions. Involvement with this Central American congregation goes back nearly 10 years and has become a partnership since 1989.

Springer emphasizes that the several trips made back and forth by members of Northside and the Honduran parish are "not paternalistic." They bear little resemblance to the old foreign mission goal of bringing American religion to a people who "need" it. Each group has learned from the other, he said.

"This is where missionary work is these days, rather than in the offices in New York or Atlanta or other national headquarters," he observed. "With people involved like this, we are in real partnership."

Meanwhile, Northside begins its second 50 years using Communion ware crafted by Bill Hardy, who used the wood of the old oak. Its stump is now all that remains on the lawn, following its felling after Hurricane Hugo hit five years ago.

by CNB