Chapter Four
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By 1960, when Holy Cross was moving toward groundbreaking on its first sanctuary and educational facility, the Georgia-Alabama Lutheran Synod was celebrating its 100th anniversary. It is unclear why this branch of the Lutheran Church took so long in reaching Athens and Clarke County, but part of it was likely cultural, since what was then the United Lutheran Church in America had originated in the upper Midwest with the descendants of Germans and Scandinavians.
The days of the ULCA, however, were already numbered, as the tide of mergers, mentioned earlier in the brief history of the ELCA, was already being planned. In 1960, however, the still-in-business ULCA had 58 congregations in Georgia and Alabama (though only 51 pastors), along with 60 temporary and mission churches, with 40 pastors serving them.
The Georgia-Alabama Synod was about to be history: a meeting that year would change it to the Southeastern Synod, a designation the combined church still has. Instead of many groups of different Lutheran churches, the newly combined denomination would have more than 3 million members—nothing to rival such Southern staples as the Baptists and Methodists, but substantial nonetheless.
As a sign of its newfound energy and commitment, Holy Cross on January 24, 1960, began using a new Service Book and Hymnal. The church had also, once and for all, stopped singing the Doxology. Congregants came in heavy coats and cars to the parsonage on Jan. 10, to an open house where they got to see the Markland family in the first structure bought by Holy Cross.
The church’s Building Committee stayed busy throughout the winter and spring, working with architect Roy Murphy on a proposed design for the new church. Interior design consultant Robert Hurt of Creative Buildings, Inc., met with the group, as did Ted Carson, also of Roy Murphy Associates. The church eagerly anticipated groundbreaking.
Holy Cross entered a building drive with vigor, securing pledges, and plans for the church revealed a modernistic design that looked like something like a Spanish mission as designed for the Jetsons. (To be fair, that entire era was one in which the old was considered passé, and numerous historic mansions in Athens were torn down to make way for single-story brick buildings. Years later, a local paper, The Athens Observer, would publish a two-page spread called “Vanished Athens,” that documented the disastrous building—and destruction—practices of the early to middle 1960s in Athens. So a “modern” design for Holy Cross was simply fitting in with a well-established national trend.)
While all this was going on, Miss Diane Black became the first youth to be confirmed at Holy Cross on June 5. The congregation also had a vacation church school that summer, with 21 children attending. A week before Black was confirmed, the new buildings were dealt a setback when the church voted to formally reject the bids for the sanctuary and educational buildings. The job went out for new bids, which were expected by July 15.
In the meantime, however, Holy Cross was losing its location in the cream-colored brick building in Five Points and was in the odd position of being adrift just as it was trying to nail down a start-date for its new structure. Luckily, the ballroom of the Georgian Hotel at the corner of Washington and Jackson streets in downtown Athens became available.
On Sunday, July 31, 1960, Holy Cross took its altar and other possessions on the road yet again, and met for the first time at the hotel, which was not only large and comfortable but $125 a month less than the house in Five Points. Just six weeks later, the congregation voted to accept the bid of the C. C. Robertson Construction Company to build Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Groundbreaking was set for Sunday, Oct. 2. Total cost was set at $63,017.
A large painted sign was placed on the site with pride: “Site of the Future Home of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, ULCA, present at Temporary Chapel at ______________.” The sign, obviously put up about the time Holy Cross was losing its Five Points location but before it moved, had, in a photograph, a board over the blank with “Georgian Hotel” on it. Then, at the bottom, the sign said: “For information, call R. Markland at LI8-3329.” (The familiar “54” prefix on many Athens phone numbers was in those days referred to as LI or Liberty, matching the letters on those numbers on a telephone. Thus, Markland’s number at the Parish House would have familiarly been referred to as Liberty 6-8424 and the church would have been Liberty 8-3329.)
The Banner-Herald considered the construction of a new church in town to be news, and the week before groundbreaking it published the architect’s drawings. On Oct. 2, understandably excited, the church hung a new shingle over the sign on Alps Road: “Groundbreaking today.”
The motorcade from the Georgian Hotel to the site went out the Atlanta Highway—an almost rural two-lane road, nothing like the multi-lane business district it is today. The parishioners must have felt a thrill of pride—five years had passed since Ernie Parrish had first come into Athens to start a mission church on the basis of an obviously thin survey. And yet, despite meeting in basements for years, struggling financially, and never quite reaching the required minimum number of members for a congregation, here the church was, headed for the site of its first sanctuary.
Dr. Wood—who had worked so hard for so long to get Holy Cross going—broke ground with the first shovelful of dirt, followed by Will Siefert, representing the congregation of Holy Cross. Acolyte Billy Jordan stood with the groundbreaking team as photographers took pictures and joy mingled, almost certainly, with a few damp eyes.
Grading began the next day, and by Oct. 12, the floor level was staked, and the contractors had constructed a gravel parking area and a small tool shed. By Oct. 21, the contractor had dug the foundations and partially poured the concrete, and work on concrete blocks and furnace ductwork was going strong by Oct. 29.
In fact, Athens was in the midst of a church building boom, with Holy Cross, Princeton Methodist, and Beech Haven Baptist all going up at the same time. Work was steady on Holy Cross, though members were startled to realize about this time that they hadn’t included pews in the bids and would thus be forced to sit in chairs. Finding this unacceptable, the Building Committee started yet another project—the Pew Fund.
Members drove by the site and watched construction:
*Nov. 6: Floors poured for the educational building
*Nov. 14: Framing started for same.
*Dec. 4: Roof on educational structure.
*Dec. 13: Roof going up on the sanctuary, which was being referred to as the “chapel.” In fact, despite winter working conditions, the church and educational buildings never lost momentum, and the contractors moved with what, in 2005, would seem remarkable speed.
Even before the church was finished, the church office at the Georgian Hotel was selling picture postcards with the drawing of the new Holy Cross Lutheran Church for two cents a piece. Church members were delighted, too, when they found an entire set of used church pews that could be refurbished “at a huge savings.”
Five and a half months after groundbreaking, Holy Cross Lutheran was ready to move in, and the first meeting for the new facility was set for March 19, 1961. As Markland said, “Truly God has blessed us.”
Chapter 5
