J. Franklin Clark turns a switch, and the Aeolian Skinner organ starts with a low hum. Clark runs his hands over the tiered keyboards, and the 1,000-seat sanctuary of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church fills with the organ's rich, eerily stirring tones.

"This is really a magnificent instrument, and the only one of its kind in this condition," said Clark, who is the church's music minister and choirmaster.

Hyosub Shin//Staff Photographer (ENLARGE)

Church attendance has fallen to about 275 members, but parishioners still count among their programs a child care center, an after-school program, a men's shelter and multiple missions.

RELATED LINKS: • More photos DRUID HILLS PRESBYTERIAN AT A GLANCE • Francis P. Smith, who was the first head of Georgia Tech's architecture school, was the chief designer for Druid Hills Presbyterian's Gothic-style sanctuary. It was completed in 1940, and replaced the old sanctuary built in 1924, which now serves as the church's parlor and Sunday school rooms. • The new sanctuary cost $150,000 to build in 1936, and was designed to hold 1,000 congregants. • Clairmont Presbyterian, North Decatur Presbyterian, Rehobath Presbyterian and Shallowford Presbyterian were all built with the help of Druid Hills Presbyterian members in the 1950s. • Four Presbyterian "moderators" during the 1940s were past ministers of the church. A moderator is the highest leadership position in the Presbyterian Church. • When the new church was first built in 1940 it had the latest in air-conditioned comfort – a large block of ice that was delivered to a special door under the sanctuary floor; as the ice melted, the cool air was pumped through air ducts to the congregation above. • The Druid Hills Presbyterian Child Development Center started in 1969 for working parents in the area, and now also has an after-care program for Mary Lin and Morningside Elementary Schools. It's accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. LIVING Latest Headlines: Secluded Georgia refuge takes in misfit gorillas  Decatur First Baptist keeps woman in the pulpit  Zoo Atlanta's gorillas include numerous old-timers  Atlanta conference examines institution of marriage  World's oldest polar bear dies at Canadian zoo  • More Living Stories • Living photo galleries • Georgia Aquarium news and photos • Zoo Atlanta news and photos

On Sunday, the historic organ's music will reverberate here, when the Druid Hills Presbyterian choir and brass ensemble take center stage to celebrate the church's 125th anniversary. Former member Patrick Miller, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, will give the sermon, while Clark and the choir will perform pieces written especially for the event.

For members like Suanne SauerBrun, who has been busy mailing out invitations for the anniversary, the celebration has sparked memories of growing up in the Virginia-Highland church.

It began as Fourth Presbyterian in 1883, on Hunter Street in downtown Atlanta. The congregation changed its name with the move to Druid Hills in the 1920s.

The first time SauerBrun saw the sanctuary, with its classic Willet Studio stained-glass windows and Gothic arches, she was 9.

"I thought it was magnificent," SauerBrun said. That was 1940, shortly after the new church had been completed — it took four years — for $150,000.

More than 68 years later, the still stately church near the intersection of Ponce de Leon and Highland avenues has survived neighborhood demolition — caused by a defunct interstate road project — membership loss to the suburbs, and even what one member termed "the hippies" who came to roost in the Virginia-Highland area in the '60s and '70s.

The church continues to serve its community despite a decline in membership. Average Sunday attendance is 275 members, compared with the 1940s and '50s, when it boasted a membership of more than 2,000. The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta is now on its campus, as well as a child development center and a men's shelter.

"I guess you could call it a classic story of the 'fishes and loaves,'" said J. Wade, who joined the church in the early '80s. Wade was attracted to the church because of its missions to the area's downtrodden. "I was looking for a traditional Presbyterian church with a servant heart," the Midtown resident said.

And she thinks she's found just that at Druid Hills. The church supports multiple missions, including a homeless shelter for men, a project housing refugee families and a child care center for young families.

Over the decades, the church has striven to "be a place of nurture for all people," said the church's interim pastor, Stephen Kolderup. That's a challenge, he said, "because it means meeting two different types of ministry needs — those of families moving into the neighborhood, and those who are walking the streets."

Lila Bonner Miller started the church's night shelter for men in 1983. Her daughter, Belle Miller McMaster, now runs it from September through May. The shelter houses 30 men a night and is a collaborative effort with 25 other churches and groups.

It's actually an offshoot of another ministry, Wade said. Every Sunday afternoon since 1974, dinner has been served to homeless men, women and children. On average, Wade added, the ministry feeds 50 people each Sunday.

Archie Hooks, 91, who was a civil engineering student at Georgia Tech when he joined the church in 1935, has seen the church in good times and bad.

"One of my fond memories is that the church was filled every Sunday," Hooks said. "There was rarely a Sunday when we didn't have to bring chairs in for extra people."

For his wife Cecile, who joined the church in 1960 as the Christian education director, the most poignant memory was voting for the church's first woman minister in 1997.

"I thought I didn't want a woman, but it became obvious that she had to be the one," Cecile Hooks said, "and she wanted to work harder than most any other candidates — and she did. I changed my mind."

The Rev. Mary Jane Cornell served as pastor for 10 years before leaving in 2007 to take on an interim pastoral position at another church.

With over seven decades at Druid Hills, Archie Hooks is optimistic about the future.

"Most churches would have folded in the 1960s, when we lost many of our members," Hooks said. He is still surprised to see how the small church steps up to the plate financially for projects. It's currently embarking on a capital campaign to renovate the 1940 sanctuary.

"We're hoping to grow back to where we were, Hooks said. "I've noticed there's more children in the last 10 years than we've had in a while."

For Wade, the vitality of the church is its main attraction.

"To me it's the ability for people to see needs and be able to act on them," she said. "This is a such a caring church, not just for folks in need, but really caring about each other as well."