Eastland Church of Christ

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On November 4, 1910, the Eastland Church of Christ was completely constructed in East Nashville in a matter of hours. The church, located at Sharpe Avenue and Gallatin Pike, was built under the supervision of one architect and involved over one hundred fifty men. Eastland Church of Christ was the first church to be built in one day in the South. The idea of building a church in a single day came from a deacon at Woodland Baptist Church who saw similar projects in Illinois and California. The work started at 7:00 A.M and was completed by 7:00 P.M by the congregations of Woodland Baptist and the 17th Street Church of Christ. Throughout the day, there were as many as one thousand people at the site watching the event take place, with an estimated four thousand total people who came throughout the day. The frame structure with a fourteen foot ceiling stood sixty feet from Gallatin Road on a 63 x 100 lot.

Once completed, the church could hold two hundred fifty people. Many more gathered outside during the first service held that evening, where the sermon emphasized the possibility of working together through a united cause. The first official communion was held on Thanksgiving Day 1910 and was met with gifts from other churches throughout the Nashville area. In addition to it being the first church to be built in one day in the South, it was one of only four in the entire country to be built this way in 1910. The ability to consolidate over one hundred people to construct a single building shows the sense of community in Nashville during this time. The church no longer stands at the intersection of Sharpe Avenue and Gallatin Pike; however, Eastwood Baptist and Eastwood Christian Academy are in full operation near the original site.