The building on Crook and Second was outgrown by 1933 and the church began to meet in Chapel Hall at Freed-Hardeman College.

During this time the church needed a place to baptize people. An outside baptistry was apparently built about 1933 by the order of N. B. Hardeman, President of Freed-Hardeman at the time. The structure was used from 1933 to 1949.
The remains of the baptistry are still below the ground behind the Old Main Administration Building at Freed-Hardeman University. The baptistry is located near the Japanese Tulip between the Old Main Administration and the Education Center buildings. The structure itself is an eight by four foot long, two-brick thick cement structure with steps on the inside leading down into the inside. It was always below ground when it was being used, the top of the walls being level with the surface of the earth. A large metal cover was kept on top of it except when it was being used.

Several people still living remember the use of the baptistry. Doris Maness, Director of Financial Aid at Freed-Hardeman University, remembers being baptized in the baptistry as a young girl. As a young man Lee Grantham remembers his brother and his brother's wife being baptized there. Several, including people like Norman Hogan and E. Claude Gardner who were here as students at that time, have told of those they remember being baptized there, including local residents and Freed-Hardeman University students, those who are deceased and those who are still living. They told of Dick Hardeman, Joe Hardeman Foy, Earle West, Charles Way, James McClendon, Aline Lowrance, Lanie B. and Gladys O. Moore, Loyd and Marie Kennedy, Lois Rhodes and her brother Donald Smith, Julia McAdams Sanford, Avis Creasy Scott, Martha Casey and many others being baptized there. Before his death, C. P. Roland recalled several being baptized in the old baptistry, including three of his sons, Charles, Mack and Ike Roland.-Freed-Hardeman University, Henderson, TN 38340-2399
Editor's Note: The above photo is that of a group of young Freed-Hardeman College preacher students gathered around the baptistry preparing for a baptism in September, 1945.-Dennis Gulledge, Editor.

A FIFTY YEAR-OLD DECISION

People do not accidentally attend worship services without missing one worship service for twenty years. They must have planned always to attend. So after I obeyed the gospel, I read of an older brother who had not missed going to worship a single Sunday in 41 years. That story caused me to resolve and to purpose in my heart that I would never miss the worship on a single Lord's Day as long as I lived, if possible to attend. I have missed four Sundays in over fifty years, and this was because of illness. Once I made that decision, the question has not come up as to whether I would attend church services or not. In fact, I did not decide last Lord's Day to go to worship, nor the Sunday before. That decision was made more than fifty years ago. It is a sin for any member to miss the worship unless he is unable to attend. The very nature of our religion is such that those who feel this is a burden need to be converted.-Gus Nichols (1892-1975).