• Timmons Temple is a rare and important African-American church in Springfield, located at 934 E. Webster. It was built in 1932, during the Jim Crow era, when churches were segregated, and holds irreplaceable cultural, historical and architectural significance for Springfield and the Ozarks. In the face of pending demolition for apartment development, citizen volunteers are joining together to try to relocate the structure to nearby Silver Springs Park for a new life, with the help of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.
• Local historians say Ozark field rock was used in the walls from adjacent Jordan Creek, where church Baptisms occurred. The ornate rock work is designed in a beautiful Craftsman style. A 2005 rock property survey stated: “some of the most ornate rock work in the study group.” The distribution of rock suggests several ornamental figures, symbolic curved rows formed by stacking long thin chips of stones to form bans and sunbursts.
• We don’t have much time before the church will be demolished for apartment development. This is a preservation effort of monumental faith, but your donation will help save this gem for current and future generations to learn about the church’s cultural, historic, and architectural significance for our country and the Ozarks region.
• Springfield-Greene County parks has suggested relocation in the green space between the basket-ball court by the railroad tracks and the adjacent parking lot. Jordan Creek Greenway would run along side the relocated structure.
Cost estimates are at $200,000:
This includes securing the walls, lifting the structure onto a hydraulic lift, dropping utility lines along its nearby journey to Silver Springs Park.