Wetumpka’s First Presbyterian Church Gets New Steeple, Continues Rebuilding After Devastating Tornado

A landmark church in Wetumpka that was destroyed in an EF-2 tornado, is now one step closer to being restored to its former glory. Wednesday morning, church members watched excitedly as a new steeple was lifted on top of its building.

First Presbyterian Church is being rebuilt from the ground up, after the  tornado flattened the historic sanctuary in January of 2019.

“This is probably the most iconic part of the aesthetic of the church” said Pastor Jason Yarboro, standing beside the shell of the church’s steeple before it was hoisted atop the front of church.

The steeple was one of the first things you’d see as you cross the Bibb Graves Bridge from downtown Wetumpka for more than 150 years. “It’s familiar, it’s comforting” said Yarboro. Dozens of church members stood across the street or camped out in their cars in anticipation, for the big reveal.

One couple, Lee and Nancy Borders, remembered the devastation they saw a year and nearly four months ago. “It was unbelievable” Lee said “to see our bell is in a pile of rubble over here, and it was hard to imagine”. Nancy was baptized at the church as a young girl.

Now they say its hard to believe just how much the new rebuild, that being constructed using the original blueprints, looks likes the original

“This does not look like a replica of the church, it looks just like the church we lost” said Yarboro.  Church member Mary Peck agreed. “It brings it home” she said “It’s really going to happen, we are really cloning the church that used to be”.

Pastor Yarboro shared this Facebook live as the steeple went up for a “test fitting”.

The steeple and bell tower are some of the last additions before the exterior of the church is complete, but there is still several months of work left to finish inside.

Even in the midst of COVID-19 concerns Yarboro says the progress has been constant, and a sign of hope amid uncertainty.  “As I’m wondering well what’s the day going to bring? I look out and look out and see the church continuing to materialize before my eyes and that’s a blessing” he said.

The original building was dedicated in the late 1850’s, and added to the national register of historic places in 1976. Yarboro said construction of the new building should be complete by mid August.