The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-14
A CHURCH BUILT IN A DAY.


 A church with seating capacity of three thousand persons, heated by three furnaces and lighted with electric lamps, was built between daylight and midnight Saturday, at Ravenswood, and was dedicated at 10:45 o'clock Sun day morning by the Rev. M B. VII Hams, of Atlanta, Ga, assisted by nearly every clergyman in Ravens wood
 The site of the church was on Friday night vacant lot surrounded by row of scraggy oak trees. When the people of the neighborhood looked out of their windows Sunday morning they found a substantial church, 90x120 feet, with smoke curing from it's chimneys and the front doors open, ready for the dedicatory service.
 The contract for the church was closed at midnight Friday. The first lumber was hauled to the site at three o'clock Friday afternoon, and men be- gan stringing electric wires from a plant two miles away. At five o'clock Saturday morning ten men were put to work, and as fast as material enough arrived the number of worSmen was | increased till there were nearly two hundred men engaged on the structure l At five o'clock Saturday night the walls of the structure had been completed and enough of the roof had been cov- cred over for the church women of Ra- venswood to begin decorating with | flags and bunting
 At exactly midnight, twenty hours after the cornerstone was laid, the jam i itor turned the Key in the lock of the front door and went home to get a little sleep before opening the church | for service.
 The Rev. M. B. Williams who until recently has been engaged in a temper ance crusade in Iowa, began a series of revival meetings at the United Presby- terian church in Ravenswood one week ago.. The plans, were to conduct meet | ings every afternoon and evening for | four weeks. After two days of meet | ings the church where they were held | became too small for the crowd and the build another and larger church and have it ready to dedicate by Sunday | At the revival meeting last Wednes- day night seven hundred dollars was subscribed as starter by the people of Ravenswood The Rev. Mir Williams went out after the meeting to find a contractor, and at midnight he had drawn his plans and the contract was ready to be@signed. One of the provi- sions was that the church should be ready for service by Sunday. If it was not, there was to be no work performed early on Sunday morning.
 The nearest electric lighting plant is two miles away from Ravenswood. It was necessary to string electric wires all the distance to keep the contract The linemen started to string wires at the same time that the first load of lumber was dumped on the ground A few workmen were busy for an hour and a half on Friday afternoon preparing the ground for the building and, with that exception, the work was all done Saturday. Over fifty thousanG feet of lumber was hauled to the site and was used almost as fast as 1t was unloaded.
 The men stopped work for half an hour at noon and the same length oi time for supper, and the construction of the building went on till midnight when the last nail was driven in the completed structure. The three thou. sand chairs were nearly all in place be- fore the roof was completed, and the piano and pulpit furniture were being placed at the same time the doors were being hung.
 The nave of the church is eighteer feet high, while the aisles are abou eight feet lower. No floor was laid but the ground was covered witt twelve inches of fine shavings. Int roof is covered with boards and tar pa per, and the walls are lined with heavy building paper to keep out the cold The choir will seat one hundred and if ty singers, and, besides the piano, ther, will be full orchestra at each service The building is lighted by four art lamps and heated by three furnaces The furnaces and lamps were in plac, almost before the frame of the building had been completed
 At the dedicatory services Sunday morning the United Presbyterian, Bap tist, Christian, two Congregational am two Methodist Episcopal churches O Ravenswood united in the service Chicago Tribune.