Billy Sunday
A reader recently sent me an e-mail in which she asked if I knew where the Billy Sunday Auditorium was. It was there that her grandfather, Andrew Ireland, and others in the class of 1921 received diplomas from Central High School.
I recognized the name of evangelist Billy Sunday from American history classes. However, it required some research to find the answer to her question. The answer is in four parts.
CONVENTION – from the Latin “com” (together) and “venire” (come)
In the 1890s, Chattanooga’s civic leaders recognized the need for a building to house public assemblies. They envisioned the facility being used not only by local residents, but also by conventioneers who would arrive by rail and stay in nearby hotels.
Under the leadership of Mayor George W. Ochs, plans for the City Auditorium moved forward. The site that was selected was the 900- block of Georgia Avenue, where the Federal Courthouse stands today. This was previously the location of the Howard Free School for African-American children that was established in 1872 by the American Missionary association.
The City Auditorium was constructed of limestone and brick, and had two towers and a skylight. Much of the brick came from the former Howard school, as well as the old Second District School on College Hill.
The interior had dozens of electric lights, still a novelty in 1897 when the building was completed.
On New Year’s Day, 1897, the cornerstone of the City Auditorium was laid in a Masonic ceremony. A parade beginning at Seventh and Broad opened the day’s festivities at 10:30am.
Congressman Benton McMillin was the first speaker, and noted the elders surrounding him who remembered when Chattanooga was just a village. He predicted that the city would soon have a quarter of a million residents.
The auditorium was formally dedicated on May 20, 1897, during graduation exercises of Chattanooga High School. Mayor George W. Ochs said, “Our city is an ideal point for the assembling of great conventions. God so ordained it when he spread here a panorama of betwitching beauty..”
Many events were held at the City Auditorium during the early 1900s. Two U.S. presidents – William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt – spoke there. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan said that it was the best-arranged auditorium in the south.
A conference of governors met there to form the Dixie Highway Association to promote road construction to help those newfangled automobiles to stay out of ditches and gullies. The United Confederate Veterans and Grand Army of the Republic met there to recall stories of the Civil War.
CONFLAGRATION – from the Latin “com” (intensive) and “flagrare” (burn)
On the afternoon of Friday, June 9, 1916, some women were holding a rummage sale in the basement of the City Auditorium. They soon became the “first responders” to a rapidly-spreading fire inside the building. Despite the efforts of Fire Chief William Toomey and his crew, using new engine-powered pumpers, the auditorium was destroyed.
Alternate sites had to be chosen for the regular events held at the City Auditorium. Reminiscent of the wrestling events of Harry Thornton at the Memorial Auditorium in later years, prize-fighting was an on-going show. The fights were moved to the Lyric Theater. Civic leaders debated where to build a replacement, with locations such as the old site, Fountain Square, and South Broad Street being in the running. Wherever it was built, “make the new auditorium fire-proof” was the consensus.
SALVATION – from the Latin “salvus” (save)
“I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it ‘til I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition.”
After hearing his faith expressed in this famous quote, those who heard evangelist Billy Sunday (yes, his real name) knew exactly where he stood. However, Billy Sunday hadn’t always been on the straight and narrow.
Born in rural Iowa in 1862, Billy endured the loss of his father in the Civil War, alcoholism of step-fathers and other family members, and dire poverty. For recreation, he played baseball on community teams. His fleet-footedness caught the eye of scouts for the Chicago White Stockings baseball club (forerunner of the Chicago Cubs) in 1883.
Billy at first frequented the saloons of Chicago with his teammates, but in 1886, accepted Christ as a result of music and testimonies that he heard at the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. In 1891, he left baseball for a career in evangelism.
By 1919, Billy Sunday was a nationally-recognized traveling evangelist. On the site of the old City Auditorium, a temporary tabernacle was built to host Billy Sunday in a six-week revival starting Nov. 9, 1919.
A crowd of choristers singing Granny Clampett’s (and also my grandmother’s) favorite, “Brighten the Corner Where You Are,” welcomed Mr. Sunday. Billy looked across Ninth Street towards the Read House, and recalled staying there during his baseball travels.
Twenty-thousand Chattanoogans turned out to hear Billy Sunday preach multiple sermons that first day. With memories of the auditorium fire still vivid, city leaders had installed a fire hydrant at each street corner around the tabernacle.
Through his very plain-spoken, direct messages, Billy Sunday exhorted the congregation to lead better lives by following the teachings of the Bible.
The fiery quotes of Billy Sunday are too numerous to mention, but here’s one example: “Some church members have the hoof-and-mouth disease. They just run around and talk about their neighbors.” By the last services on December 21, 1919, Billy Sunday had delivered 80 sermons and reached 260,000 people.
Billy Sunday may have made other visits to Chattanooga before making his last in 1935. On Saturday, April 27, 1935, he arrived for a three-week revival at First Baptist Church.
Billy Sunday and his wife stayed at the Robinson apartments next to First Baptist on Georgia Avenue. The 71-year-old Sunday suffered his second heart attack in two years on May 14, 1935. He had not followed his doctor’s advice to limit his sermons to one a day.
Mrs. Billy Sunday led services on May 15 and told the congregation the story of their lives together in ministry.
Billy Sunday returned to the pulpit on Sunday, May 19, with his physician at his side. Through tears, he preached on the 23rd Psalm. He told those in the pews, “When you hear that I croaked, you can bet your hairpins I put up an awful argument with God to let me stay. But I am ready; I’ll be ready when God calls.”
After a benediction of “Till We Meet Again,” Mr. Sunday left Chattanooga for a stay at the Mayo Clinic.
Billy Sunday passed from this life on Nov. 6, 1935. The epitaph on his grave marker is from II Timothy: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.”
GRADUATION – from Medieval Latin “graduari” (to take a degree)
On the evening of Friday, May 20, 1921, Andrew Ireland and 115 other classmates were waiting to walk across the stage to receive diplomas from Central High School. The stage was inside the Billy Sunday Tabernacle. In 1922, Chattanooga would have a new public meeting place, the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium. So, this may have been the last graduation exercise at the Billy Sunday Tabernacle.
Andrew Ireland was just 16 ½ years old, as he had started in the third grade after advanced placement. At Central High School, still a relatively new school on Dodds Avenue, Mr. Ireland had been a member of the student senate, a captain of the school’s military unit, and was a four-year honor student.
The class of 1921 had celebrated at a picnic at Chickamauga Creek on May 16, 1921, and was honored at a banquet in the Hotel Patten on May 18. The graduation ceremonies opened with the tune, “Song of Spring,” and featured many Central High music groups.
Mr. Ireland continued his education all the way to earning a PhD., and had a distinguished career as a geologist.
If you have memories of the City Auditorium or Billy Sunday Tabernacle or Billy Sunday’s 1935 visit, either personally or through family members, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@signaldata.net. Thanks to the reader who submitted this question!
Old City Auditorium. Click to enlarge.