On Nov. 20, 1855, booksellers in Hillsdale announced a new up-and-coming literary hit for sale: Frederick Douglass’ “My Bondage and My Freedom.”
The next day, a group of eight men signed the Articles of Association, founding the First Free Will Baptist Church of Hillsdale on College Hill – the church now known as College Baptist Church.
“We agree to promote the benevolent enterprises of the day,” the Articles read, “such as missions, sabbath schools, moral reform, anti-slavery, and education and every other that may have the present and eternal well-being of mankind and the glory of God for its object.”
The original eight signers included a Hillsdale College professor, two students, and the president of the college, Edmund Burke Fairfield.
In its first decade, church meetings were held at the college chapel. Nearly one month before the Civil War ended at Appomattox, Va. in 1865, church officials decided to incorporate and buy land to construct a building for the church.
While the church bought a plot of land at the corner of Fayette and Manning Streets, college professor Ransom Dunn traveled throughout Europe and the Holy Land, touring gothic and romanesque churches of the Old World. While there, he made measurements and drawings to incorporate into the plans for the building in Hillsdale.
“Dunn and his son went to Europe, looking at the architecture there,” Jason Mekelburg, the current pastor of College Baptist, said. “When they got back, they put the ideas together into a blueprint.”
During construction, The Hillsdale Standard reported that the church, when finished, would be the “largest church in the West.” The building was designed to hold 1,600 people: 800 in the sanctuary and 800 in the balcony.
At 10 a.m. on Jan. 5, 1868, the congregation gathered to dedicate the new building. Dedicators admired the spired bell tower, the beautifully frescoed ceiling, and walls of stained glass windows.
The total cost of construction was more than $20,000, or in today’s dollars, more than $300,000.
“It is finished in a neat and substantial manner,” The Hillsdale Democrat announced. “With enough ornamentation to look well, there is not so much as to be likely to attract the attention of the congregation from the services of the hour.”
On Sunday mornings, members of the Hillsdale community walk through the same doors that welcomed dedicators in 1868.
Attendees enjoy comforts that were not possible when the building was first completed. Running water was installed in the bell tower, allowing the construction of indoor restrooms.
The electric lighting that was eventually installed caused the congregation to lower the ceiling in order to make room for wiring. The curled frescoes that decorated the church in 1868 are now only visible inside the crawl space above the sanctuary.
“You can crawl through a hole in the hanging ceiling and find more of those curly decorations up there,” Mekelburg said. “The ceiling is sky blue.”
Now, the only testament to the existence of the old decoration is the small border of scrolled fresco on the walls running the length of the church.
Originally, a stately spire decorated each corner of the bell tower. When a storm sent one of the spires crashing down to the sidewalk below, the other three were also removed.
In the 1950s and 60s, the front of the church was altered to make way for the church library, the church business office, and the Riker Room, a large room upstairs for church gatherings and sunday school classes.
In the 80s, the original pipe organ needed extensive and expensive repairs. The church replaced the organ with an electric organ, placing speakers behind the already-existing pipes.
The building is not the only aspect of the church that has changed over the years: more recently, the church’s denomination changed as well.
“After my predecessor left, we spent a year researching denominations that we agreed with theologically,” Mekelburg explains. “We wanted a denomination more in line with our people and our beliefs.”
In 2005, the church left the Baptist General Conference and joined Converge Worldwide.
Despite these changes, Sunday morning still finds college students and townspeople alike filling the pews, while light streams through the same stained glass windows that have enclosed the sanctuary for the past 146 years.
The building has been the site of numerous moments in history during the past century.
When two-thirds of the main building of the college was destroyed by fire in 1874, college activities were transferred to College Baptist while the buildings were repaired.
On Christmas Eve of 1896, “Free Baptist Church” hosted a special visitor: “the veritable Santa Claus and his spouse, Mrs. Santa Claus.”
“Altogether, it may be safe to say, that a little such nonsense, once a year, is conducive to good to both young and old,” The Hillsdale Herald reported. “Verifying the saying that happy Christian people are more likely to be good than those who fear to offend their Heavenly Father by a little well timed merriment.”
The church was also used for many college functions including speeches, debates, and other events.
“There used to be chapel in here every day,” Mekelburg says.
Chapel on Feb. 12, 1919, featured an address by Lt. Stephen Jessop ‘19, the first Hillsdale soldier in World War I to return to tell of his experiences in France.
Jessop was a recipient of the Croix de Guerre, a military decoration of France awarded to foreign military forces allied with France. Jessop and an assistant carried several wounded soldiers away from the front lines after their ambulance was bombed.
“Lt. Jessop said that it will be years before the soldiers realize all the things they have seen,” The Collegian reported. “It was not American troops who won the war but their spirit of ‘let’s go’ transmitted to the allies.”
After the war, the community dealt with a battle of another kind: the Ku Klux Klan. To combat the Klan’s popularity, the Rev. W. H. Roberts gave a Sunday night talk on the evils of the Klan.
School “continued at an approximately normal pace” during the early years of World War II, according to the Winona. But chapel on the morning of March 6, 1943 brought change to the whole campus.
“President Turner was making the usual announcements when suddenly his voice chanted out, ‘All E.R.C. men – March 15, 1943 – so sorry you boys have to leave us.’”
The Winona described the scene that followed.
“The church was silent, deathly silent, then, shouts of joy echoed and re-echoed. ‘This is it! We’re in the army now!’ And so they soon were. The campus became a bare, desolate place. Girls began to learn the enjoyment of each other’s company.”
In 1977, Ronald Reagan gave his first speech at Hillsdale,“Whatever Happened to Free Enterprise,” at College Baptist as an installment of the Ludwig von Mises lecture series.
“Inflation (a depression of the value of money) is caused by one thing, and has one answer,” Reagan said. “It’s caused by government spending more than government takes in and it will go away when government stops doing that and not before.”
College Baptist has been a venue for performances of visiting professional artists, orchestra, and choir performances. Above all, it remains a place of worship near and dear to the hearts of Hillsdale’s students.
“It’s really special to worship in a place where there’s been so much history,” Sophomore Sarah Kreuz said. “So much has happened there. You’re really connected with worshipers past and present.”
