The Fife Bros Tabernacle: A Community Revival (The Stone-Campbell Movement Part II)

The evangelists known as the Fife Brothers (Clyde, Earl, and Robert) arrived on Tuesday March 13 and held their first service at the Christian Church (also known as Campbellites, Church of Christ, or Disciples of Christ) on the Southwest corner of Washington and Congress Streets. They had arrived after conducting a revival in Columbus where 300 people converted. While Columbus was far larger than Athens, the total number of Athenian converts would double those in Columbus. In fact, there were nearly 200 who had to be turned away during their first night of services because the crammed church building was too small. Following the first night, services were moved to the Methodist Episcopal Church on March 14, but this building also proved to be too small for the crowd of over 1,000. On Sunday, March 16, the evangelists conducted five services and accommodated over 3,500 people at Ohio University’s auditorium and the Presbyterian Church. It was due to Athens’ inability to house such large crowds that the Disciples of Christ congregation unanimously voted to erect a tabernacle for the revival meetings. 

Erecting a tabernacle for over 1,000 people was no small feat, it required a community effort, without which it would have been difficult to accomplish. The property chosen for the tabernacle was on Carpenter Street at the end of Court Street where the Armory now resides. The Athens Brick Company leased the lot to the church free of charge. Both local hardware and lumber companies donated their materials, Sunnyside Lumber Company even provided a carpenter to assist. Contractor Frank Phillips not only oversaw the whole project, but also designed the plans for the tabernacle. However, the building efforts did not stop with professionals, countless boys and men, numbering as many as 200 assisted with construction, while women from the church provided dinner for all the workers. By the end of the project, there was an 80x100 foot building that could house 2,000 people. It included a choir space with seating for 200, room for twenty orchestra pieces and two pianos, and seating for an 1,800-person audience. It also had a nursery, a baptistry for services each night, and sawdust floors. The tabernacle was lighted with electricity, heated by gas, had telephone lines, medical aid, and was adorned with decorations. Yet the miracle behind the tabernacle was not just that the community had accomplished an awesome task, but that it was completed in just over a single day.

On March 18, just a week after the Fife Brothers had arrived in Athens, the community had furnished them with a Tabernacle large enough to accommodate 2,000. Yet even after all this work, there was still more demand than what the building could accommodate. In its first night of operation people still had to be turned away. However, this did not stymie the massive amounts of conversion. Blanche Walden Deweese, the First Christian Church chronicler, maintains that during their month in Athens the Fife Brothers helped convert more than 600 people, of which 408 became members of the First Christian Church, nearly doubling its membership to 875 resident members. During the last Sunday of the revival, the First Christian Church’s Bible school (Sunday School) also experienced a record 1,011 students. By the end of the revival it was supposed that everyone in Athens had attended at least one service. 

Shortly after raising $300 for local flood victims, the revival came to a close on Monday April 7, 1913, with the evangelists’ last service, but not before Athens showed their appreciation with another large parade led by the Athens Concert Band. The community’s fervor for this revival was so intense that local officials deployed police to keep people off the roof of the tabernacle during worship. On Tuesday, April 8, the Fife Brothers left for Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and within a month the largest remnant of the revival, the tabernacle, was also gone. The building was sold to Lewis Strabus of Jacksonville, Ohio who used it for scrap wood to build various buildings on his property. Other implements used in the revival were sold at discount prices. The longest lasting legacy of the revival was the First Christian Church. Having doubled their numbers, the congregation decided during the revival to begin plans for a new building. This neoclassical structure cost $42,000 and was dedicated in April 1917—it could only hold 1,800. Although the congregation is gone, the church building still stands on the corner of Congress and State streets, one last reminder of a revival that captivated a community.

“Big Church Could Not Hold People.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 15, 1913.

“Big Crowd Heard The Evangelist Last Evening.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 28, 1913.

“Church of Christ Will Erect New Edifice For Its Big Membership.” The Athens Daily Messenger, April 7, 1913.

Daniel, Robert L. Athens, Ohio The Village Years. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997.

“Evangelists Have Planned Six Services for Sunday.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 22, 1913.

“Fife Brothers Revival Will Close Monday.” The Athens Daily Messenger, April 1, 1913.

“Fife Bros Tabernacle Will Be Dedicated Tonight.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 18, 1913.

“For Sale.” The Athens Daily Messenger, April 5, 1913. 

“Great Easter Services Planned At The Fife Bros. Tabernacle.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 21, 1913.

“Hundreds Unable To Hear Fife.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 13, 1913. 

“Hundreds Were Turned Away From Tabernacle Last Evening.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 19, 1913.

“Overflow Meeting First Night.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 12, 1913. 

Photos Courtesy of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Bethany, West Virginia.

“Services At M.E. Church.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 14, 1913. 

“Tabernacle Being Built Today For The Fife Revival Party.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 17, 1913.

“Tabernacle Was Sold Today.” The Athens Daily Messenger, May 1, 1913.

“The Fife Bros. Are In City.” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 11, 1913. 

“Thousands Hear The Fife Evangelist On ‘The Judgement.’” The Athens Daily Messenger, March 20, 1913.

Walden Deweese, Blanche. A Brief History of the First Christian Church of Athens, Ohio. Typescript, 1965-1967.