A Heritage Of Sacrifice And Service - It was 1907. Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. The Wright Brothers had just successfully flown their first heavier-than-air machine. Knoxville was a prosperous and growing industrial center with a population nearing 5,000. The city limits stopped at what is now a dirt road, streets were being cut into cow pastures and cornfields today occupied by the western half of the University of Tennessee campus. Knoxvillians were moving to the "suburbs."

For First Baptist Church, the area was a fertile mission field. An ideal place to establish a mission Sunday School! The tiny Calvary Mission Sunday School met for the first time on January 1, 1908, in the neighborhood schoolhouse. Three years later, on January 1, 1911, the mission became Calvary Baptist Church and moved into a new white frame church building.

As the community grew, Calvary grew. By 1920, the tiny 24X44-foot building was bulging at the seams. Together, church members undertook Calvary's first building program. The building fund was established with a gift of fifty cents from the pastor's son, who had sold a chicken. Other members were equally ingenious. One group of 18 members put on a play. "The Old Fashioned Mother". The proceeds from the fifty productions in churches throughout the area netted over $1,000 for the purchase of new pews for the building. Through hard work and sacrifice, the needed money was raised. When construction began, Calvary's members were there with shovels and hammers to do much of the labor themselves. The men worked and the women served lunch at the construction site.

In 1921, 130 members moved into the new brick building at the corner of Eighteenth and Yale Avenue, a site now occupied by a fraternity house parking lot adjacent to the Stokely Athletic Center on the U.T. campus. Calvary continued to grow to an enrollment of 310 in 1941. Again, more space was desperately needed. And again, Calvary members sacrificially met the challenge. A new education addition was completed in July 1942. Confident of future growth, special "birthday offerings" contributed by members on their birthdays were designated as a building fund to  purchase an adjoining lot for future expansion. From these small beginnings grew the funds to construct much needed additional educational facilities and a large new sanctuary to seat 750 people. The new building was dedicated in 1951.

Calvary prospered, meeting the spiritual needs of families in the community and students on the U.T. campus. But the growth stopped in the early 1960's. The reason - the University of Tennessee was expanding westward. Within a few short years, U.T. had purchased 131 acres of homes. Calvary's membership had spread to all corners of the city. Calvary, the community church, had lost its community and most of its membership.

In June 1965, fewer than 40 families moved into the original church building at 3200 Kingston Pike, constructed with money received from the sale of the 14 year old Yale Avenue building to the University. Again, Calvary began to grow. New families and U.T. students from the expanding campus joined. Calvary had become a metropolitan church.

Calvary again faces the challenge of space problems, greater than ever before in its history. Sunday School attendance surpassed the number calculated as the absolute maximum capacity for the building's size. Classes were meeting in the baptistry dressing rooms and in the kitchen. Two Sunday morning worship services were filled, often overflowing into classrooms equipped with closed circuit television. As so often in the past, Calvary's members were sacrificing comfort for the privilege of hearing God's Word taught and preached. And as in the past, Calvary's members were called upon to give sacrificially to provide expanded worship and Sunday School facilities, to make future growth and ministries possible. God provided clear direction. Together with Him, we prayerfully, confidently, enthusiastically, sacrificially built. In April 1980, claiming Nehemiah 2:20, "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we, as servants will arise and build," over 95 percent of the church voted to build as God supplies. In October 1983, the new church was dedicated to the glory of God - DEBT free!

Calvary continues to grow, and on April 6, 1988, voted to construct a tunnel to join the main church property with the property purchased on the north side of Kingston Pike. The tunnel was completed in 1991, and two hundred parking spaces were provided, along with new office and educational space and upgrading of the existing heating and air conditioning system, debt free.

In 1995, God miraculously opened another unexpected door. The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church agreed to sell Calvary Baptist all of its property and buildings located directly across Kingston Pike from the main church and adjoining our property on the north side of Kingston Pike. On January 2, 1998, Calvary officially accepted the property. This became the Student Center, home to our college and youth departments. As is always the case, God's perfect timing was evident as the lease on the Folger property was terminated on February 1, 1998.

Calvary at the present time owns 3.8 acres on the Riverside Campus and 10.8 acres on the Creekside Campus for a total of 14.6 acres with over 500 parking places. Calvary Baptist Church continues to REACH PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.