Anniversary Service of the Sanctuary on September 29, 2003

    I have the history at my house. I've had it ever since my mother-in-law did it years and years and years. I wanted someone old to do it, but I looked around to find that I am one of the five oldest people in the congregation, so reckon that I qualify. I have been mighty fortunate that I've lived in the shadow of this beautiful church for many years. It has been an inspiration and it has been a delight.

    We had three churches in Oxford before we built this sanctuary in 1902. The first one was just a frame building on Sycamore and Main Streets, a very crude, simple building. The second was also that way with seating for women on one side and the men on the other side. The songs were pitched by a tuning fork. There was no organ until we had the third church which they said " was a beautiful edifice which was worthy of a city even." The church was on the corner where the first church was built and had been torn down, on Main and Sycamore. This church building is still in use. It is now Knotts Grove Church. It has beautiful woodwork in it and was a building we were mighty proud of.

    The congregation had grown to 325 by this time, and the children from the Orphanage were coming to this church. So we, they, decided to build a larger church on the corner of College and McClanahan Streets. It took six years to build it. The lot cost $2,100 and the church itself cost around $20,000. In 1905 the church was dedicated debt free. So, we have a real bargain here. The church faced College Street with these two doors to the right as the front doors. The back doors are there (to the left) and back there (at the new Parlor) as they are now. In the middle, the two posts remain which held the balcony. The balcony had folding doors to separate the Sunday school rooms. That's all the Sunday school rooms had.

    The sanctuary remained this way until 1929. There was no center aisle, with only the side aisles. This design was used to build many churches in the state. However, members using the sanctuary for weddings and funerals wanted a center aisle. So, the balcony and a\the Sunday school's folding doors were removed to provide a center aisle to the new entrance on McClanahan Street. The sanctuary appears the same even today. Not many people remember the renovation, I do, but just barely.

    The next big renovation came in 1992, when we enlarged the choir loft and added the vestibule in the back. This renovation, plus other things added, such as the new windows and new pipe organ, cost in the neighborhood of $275,000. At the time of the first dedication, Bishop Granberry, who preached the sermon said "every church established in a community is a beacon light of civilization, and lifts the people in the County to a higher life, and it is a bulwark against the powers of sin and error". The Oxford Public Ledger called the church "good enough for any city". The sanctuary is not like old Ladies- it gets prettier as time goes by.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANCTUARY!!; and may you live forever in your chosen spot.