Shadyside Presbyterian Church

Also on Amberson Avenue is the Shadyside Presbyterian Church, the family church of the Spencers. It was built in 1892, when Ethel Spencer was a year old, and, according to her, was separated from her home by only two houses (these houses must have been torn down at some point, because currently the lawn of the church runs to the intersection of Amberson and Pembroke Place, with the Spencer house on the other side of Pembroke). According to her, her mother was the religious driving force in her family--her father stayed home from church to work on his photography--and of the seven children, only one remained strongly religious into adulthood. I was impressed in rereading her book how respectful she remained of her mother's faith despite moving sharply away from it.