The church spent the greater part of 1924, planning for a new building and soliciting funds for its construction. In June the architectural firm of Dougherty & Gardner, of Nashville, Tennessee was employed to plan the new church house and to supervise the building of it. Two months later the church elected a building committee of five men.

The lowest bidder on the contract put out by the architects was Worsham Brothers, of Knoxville. In November a special finance committee solicited subscriptions from the members, which totaled $112,780. Its success prompted the church to authorize the chairman of the building committee to sign the Worsham contract for $141,796. This sum included a fixed fee of $ 10,000 for the contractor's profit. The church paid for the cost of materials and labor that went into the building. Because the contract rendered the builder disinterested regarding the cost of the materials, the chairman of the building committee, James B. Gatliff, Sr., purchased through the Gatliff Coal Company many items at wholesale rates, whichin those days were often as low as 50 percent of the retail prices.

In June 1925, the demands of construction called for the sum of $50,000, which was not on hand. Mrs. Florida Moss Gatliff, the widow of Dr. Ancil Gatliff, encouraged Adam Troy Siler, a member of the building committee, to seek the money through a lending institution. She agreed to sign a note for such a loan if one could be secured. Siler traveled to Cincinnati, where he borrowed the sum from the Fifty-third National Bank for six months at six percent interest. That loan was renewed once by the bank and then was repaid with money lent to the church by Cumberland College.

Eventually the cost of the building rose to be $165,000, because extra Sunday School rooms were added. The purchase of equipment raised the cost to $203,000. Nine gifts brought the total cost to about $218,000. By February 1926, the work was done, and there the building stood in all its beauty. It was beyond the ordinary that the "small community" of Williamsburg should have erected such a church house. It was dedicated during February 24-28. But it had not been completely paid for.

By July 1925, the sum of $110,126, had been contributed by 148 members. Their gifts ranged from $5 to $12,500. The average donation was $744.09; the median, $250.

When 1926 came to an end, a debt of $40,000, remained on the new building. It was owed to the college and was secured by a note signed by two women and twenty-three men. Five years later the debt had risen to $41,850, almost all of which was held by the college. In order to liquidate the remaining indebtedness a special campaign was begun in April 1934, and was ended successfully in January 1938, when two notes were burned in a joyful ceremony.

The three meeting houses of the Williamsburg church have provided for more than a century a shelter for God's worshipers.

     Building Dedication Program, 1926

Based on To Win the Prize (and other work) by Chester Raymond Young

Return to the home page for First Baptist Church.