Mableton First Baptist Church

1930

Rev. G. W. Southard served as pastor from 1929 to 1941 and at the same time preached at Mt. Harmony Church. He resigned effective February 1941, for full time service at Mt. Harmony.

For many years there was a Christmas tree each year, begun by T. J. Lowe, one of the early citizens of the town. The idea was reluctantly abandoned much later when attendance became too large to handle the crowd of children.

The church used to have an annual 4th of July picnic at Lithia Springs, or Powder Springs. The person usually in charge was Herbert Glore who was Sunday School Superintendent for a number of years. An annual all-day singing with dinner on the ground was also held for many years on the 4th Sunday in May.

Lee's Garage, 1923-1936

As perspective about the appearance of Mableton in the 1930's, this is a picture of Lee's Garage on Bankhead Highway, now Veteran's Memorial Highway. This is a few blocks from the church, and shows that at this time, Bankhead Highway was a dirt road. Joe Lee, Jake Lee's father, operated this garage through the depression years. Joe Lee is shown in the picture of Mableton School in 1918.

On Wednesday April 16, 1931, twelve members of Mableton Church met and organized what was known as Mableton Church Club, with the object of building a new church. Several suggestions were made as to how the money would be raised. On April 25, 1931, the church received report from the newly organized club and the motion to build the church was approved.

These persons made pledges toward the construction in 1931, when many of them were out of work during the depression.

In May, 1931, a committee was appointed consisting of T. K. Gresham, P. H. Gann, and J. M. Thomas to see the School Board about getting a deed to the property where the old school house had stood at the back of the church building. In November 1931 the church asked G. H. Dailey to have the fraternal orders using the building to meet with the deacons with regard to tearing down the old building. In December 1931 it was voted to build a new church on the same ground as the old one, using as much lumber from the old church as could be used, and to notify the secret orders of such move, giving them a reasonable time to find other quarters.

At the meeting on February 17, 1932 all the members of the Church Club were made members of the Finance Committee, of which T. K. Gresham was Chairman. Mrs. A. E. Daniell was appointed Assistant Chairman, and Miss Willie Glore was named Secretary and Treasurer. A committee was appointed on January 31, 1932 to build a new church, and the building began. It was done during the height of the depression, but by many donating their time and money, it was accomplished, and on December 29, 1936 the Church was dedicated. The Church extended thanks to the School Board for the use of the school auditorium while rebuilding the church.

This photo of the red brick church and the one below were actually taken in 1986, just before the building was demolished to make way for the new sanctuary. It had served for 50+ years as a place of worship.

We pay tribute to those in the time of the great depression who made the sacrifices necessary to start us on the path to our present facilities. On February 3, 1932 the building committee for a new church building met and assigned duties for the preparation of the building site. We know this because of minutes for that first meeting supplied by Nell Lee. Her father, Glen Dailey, was part of that committee and helped preserve the records in addition to physically working on the construction. Jake Lee's great uncle Charlie Lee was chairman of the committee. Sara Payne's father Robert Glore and uncle Herbert Glore were part of the committee.

Brick deliveries were made starting in May of 1932, indicating that some parts of the foundation were started before the tearing down of the original wooden church building. Deliveries of brick at $13 per 1000 brick were made through mid November, indicating that the year 1932 was the major period for the external structure. The total indicated expenditure from May to November was about $775 for material. Almost all the labor was done by church members.

Apparently most of the external structure including bricking and the roof were completed in 1932. With the coming of spring in 1933, the ladies of the church were anxious to get things started inside the church. So the ladies of the Mableton Church Club sent a request to the building committee urging them to hurry things up so they could begin holding services in the building. At the building committee's next meeting they acknowledged this request from the ladies and agreed to move as fast as possible. Even though the formal dedication of the building was not until 1936, they apparently did start services in 1933 and continued to work on the building as time and resources were available.