The East Tennessee
Episcopalian  August 1999

by Nellie McNeil
Upper East Correspondent

“I think I can do that” was a phrase heard like a refrain being sung by parishioners from St. Paul’s, Kingsport, as they raised the roof of a new house for Gracie and Bob Davenport.

Last year when a time and talent survey revealed that twenty-five parishioners had said they would like to build a Habitat house, the Outreach Committee agreed, “Let’s do it.” The vestry then appropriated the required $30,000. Now they were at work building the house.

“On May 8 we got here, and there was nothing but the foundation. We raised the walls—all four—in two hours. It’s been phenomenal,” said Adair Murdoch, project chairman.
Every day twenty to twenty-five volunteers worked at the site, under the direction of construction supervisor Bill Ford, a retired Kingsport city property manager.

A nurse practitioner became an expert in nailing siding and shingles. A retired high school guidance counselor learned to locate and mark joists. A pharmacist installed insulation. Chemical engineers wielded hammers and saws.

The Rev. Suzanne Smitherman, Assistant to the Rector at St. Paul’s, helped push up one wall.

Rector Dan Matthews worked on the roof.

“Some [of the work] was engineered on the fly and some from the specs,” Murdoch said.

Other volunteers cooked and delivered food, offered the support of prayer, ordered supplies, inspected for safety and administered first aid.

Both Murdoch and her husband Bill took a week off from their regular jobs to work on the house.

Frank Oglesby

Additionally, John McKinley, Ed Farnsworth, Jack Fleming, Jim Briddell, Henry Adams and eighty-eight year-old Frank Oglesby worked the entire week from 7:30 to 7:30.

Even before the house building had begun, the EYC had built an outside storage shed.

More than 100 volunteers worked on the house by the time it was dedicated on Pentecost Day.

“I’d always wanted a house for my son Bob who is ten,” Davenport, a Goodwill Industries employee, said. “I’d lived at Cloud [subsidized housing] seven years since I divorced and went to bed every night scared.”

To qualify for her house, Davenport had invested 250 “sweat hours,” working on another Habitat building site.

“A free house!” Murdoch said. “Come on over and see how free it is.”

To take occupancy, Davenport had to log 500 hours, which she did, with the help of Goodwill board members and employees, neighbors and friends. Now like other homeowners she will make mortgage payments. St. Paul’s financial gift and volunteers’ time and energy made it possible for her to qualify for an interest free loan.

Davenport’s gray, three-bedroom house, with flowers blooming in pots on the porch, stands bright and new, a symbol of how the parishioners of St. Paul’s live out the Gospel admonition to “love thy neighbor.”

During ground breaking at St. Timothy, Signal Mountain, Bishop vonRosenberg (center) and the Rev. David Hackett, Rector (right), don yellow plastic hard hats, for a June 27 ceremony for a new 11,600-square-foot building that will more than double the seating capacity at the church. The current 195-seat nave will be divided. Part of the area will become a chapel, the remaining portion of the space will become part of the narthex for the new 400-seat nave. The new church building will also have 8 classrooms on the lower level. Construction is expected to take 10 - 12 months.

St. Paul’s, Chattanooga has a $4.5 million building project under way. Portions of the existing buildings at the church have been removed, including the church offices, to make room for the new Ernestine H. King Building. In addition to the new building, some renovations to existing buildings are also part of the project. The King Building will house state of the art educational facilities and administrative offices. The goal for completion is September 2000.