Today in Wheeling History: February 18--The famous baseball player turned evangelist Billy Sunday arrived in Wheeling to kick off a six-week revival campaign at a specially constructed 8,000-seat wooden tabernacle on the hillside of 26th Street in Center Wheeling (1912).
In anticipation of a visit from the renowned evangelist Billy Sunday, the people of Wheeling eagerly prepared between January 30 and February 2, 1912, coming together to construct a massive tabernacle in just four days that could seat 8,000 people at an address of 26th Street in Center Wheeling. Beginning February 18, 1912, Sunday, along with a staff of eleven, including Homer Rodeheaver as music director, held multiple services per day for six weeks in the 150,000-foot tabernacle with a cinder floor covered in sawdust. Crowds flocked daily, with the first day seeing 20,000 attendees, as Sunday delivered dramatic sermons complete with gestures like diving across the stage, attracting attention as both an evangelist and former professional baseball player with teams like the Chicago White Stockings. By April 1, 1912, when Sunday delivered his last Wheeling sermon, his campaign had drawn a reported 8,437 conversions of people "hitting the sawdust trail" and raised collections totaling $17,000, setting new records for the city. Sunday's farewell on a train was witnessed by an estimated 10,000 Wheeling residents with "tear-dimmed eyes."
To learn more: (http://tinyurl.com/v275kvuy) (http://tinyurl.com/ydjrxpkh) (http://tinyurl.com/5b6mfjn3) (http://tinyurl.com/3pm3k56f) (http://tinyurl.com/yxkhesfm)
Photo credits: Weelunk, Wheeling Intelligencer
In anticipation of a visit from the renowned evangelist Billy Sunday, the people of Wheeling eagerly prepared between January 30 and February 2, 1912, coming together to construct a massive tabernacle in just four days that could seat 8,000 people at an address of 26th Street in Center Wheeling. Beginning February 18, 1912, Sunday, along with a staff of eleven, including Homer Rodeheaver as music director, held multiple services per day for six weeks in the 150,000-foot tabernacle with a cinder floor covered in sawdust. Crowds flocked daily, with the first day seeing 20,000 attendees, as Sunday delivered dramatic sermons complete with gestures like diving across the stage, attracting attention as both an evangelist and former professional baseball player with teams like the Chicago White Stockings. By April 1, 1912, when Sunday delivered his last Wheeling sermon, his campaign had drawn a reported 8,437 conversions of people "hitting the sawdust trail" and raised collections totaling $17,000, setting new records for the city. Sunday's farewell on a train was witnessed by an estimated 10,000 Wheeling residents with "tear-dimmed eyes."
To learn more: (http://tinyurl.com/v275kvuy) (http://tinyurl.com/ydjrxpkh) (http://tinyurl.com/5b6mfjn3) (http://tinyurl.com/3pm3k56f) (http://tinyurl.com/yxkhesfm)
Photo credits: Weelunk, Wheeling Intelligencer
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