East Trigg Baptist Church, at 1189 East Trigg Avenue in South Memphis, was for half a century the pulpit of Rev. W. Herbert Brewster, one of the great American gospel songwriters. Born to sharecroppers near Somerville, Tennessee, in 1897, Brewster led the church for more than fifty years and published over two hundred songs. Move On Up a Little Higher, from his 1941 pageant From Auction Block to Glory, became a landmark record for Mahalia Jackson in 1947. His lead singer, Queen C. Anderson, whom he renamed Queen Candace, introduced many of his songs. Beginning in 1949 the church's services went out live on WHBQ late on Sunday nights as Camp Meeting of the Air, and the Gospel Treasure Hour ran on WDIA on Sunday mornings. His successor, Samuel Turner, said he had as many whites in attendance as Blacks, and that it was unheard of in Memphis. Sam Phillips is reported to have tuned in to the broadcast regularly. Louis Cantor, who worked at WDIA, wrote that Elvis Presley often visited in his early days; the Assembly of God church the Presleys attended, on McLemore, was less than a mile away. Those accounts rest on memory rather than records. Brewster died in 1987. The congregation built a new church beside the old one, which stood vacant until the night of November 22, 2024, when a fire destroyed it. Investigators ruled it intentionally set. The Brewster family has spoken of a museum and arts school on the property.
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35.1115, -90.0229
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