Churchless Gardens

Generation ago, it was a rare U. S. town that grew up without at least one church in its midst. Even the smallest settlements could support churches of two or three different Protestant denominations. Today the trend, observable particularly in new TVA towns in the South, and in such Government developments as Greenbelt in Maryland, is toward community churches, one to a locality. Away out in front of this trend last week marched a suburb of Richmond, Va. named Hampton Gardens.

As an inducement to the congregation to move to Hampton Gardens, Mrs. William Smith Morton had offered her house and lot, worth $100,000, to St. Giles Presbyterian Church of Richmond. Other residents promptly got up a petition declaring they would not welcome a church because ''the peace and quiet of the locality would be disturbed . . . clustering of a large number of cars on Sunday would constitute a traffic inconvenience and hazard." To preserve their Sabbath peace, the Hampton Gardens Association thereupon voted. 51-to-7, against allowing St. Giles or any other church to build there.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.