Where Interstate 40 now runs through Fort Sanders and Marble City, once stood Euclid Avenue. A far cry from empty land developments and roadways, old Euclid harbored a tight-knit community in between those two neighborhoods later obstructed and then destroyed as its residents started to fade away. While the land now sits as a speck of dust, forgotten in the wind of development, history provides some keen insights into the stories that now sit beneath the paved-over roadways currently in its place.
The church was founded in 1900, by a group of nine or so church-goers. Speculation of its original location points to its residing somewhere in Marble City, before a relocation within five years would see the construction of the first base of what was then Euclid Avenue Baptist Church across from Alcoa Highway, later to be renamed Greater First Church of God in Christ almost 80 years later.
Humble beginnings later turned into a surge of membership as the church established its presence. By 1934, it’s said that Euclid Avenue Baptist was sporting around 1,500 members. Helping its cause and its message was a desire to be on the cutting edge, as Euclid Avenue Baptist was one of the first churches in its section to broadcast sermons on the radio in 1938. Those sermons were given by the Rev. Ashley Pickern.
By 1950, the need for expansion would lead to the construction of the building that would exist as the modern church until it dissolved. A story from 1958 details the development of the new building, stating that the marble implemented was hand-cut by volunteers and members of the church.
As the church grew, so did the surrounding community. By the 1950s, homes began sprouting up around Euclid Avenue and its centerpiece, with a new neighborhood bringing in continued membership and participation to the church. Rows of residents, including many of Euclid’s head pastors would sit just adjacent to their office in craftsman-style homes. Before long, those homes would be rolled over by the then new and expansive Alcoa Highway, leading to the first of many eras of development.
Membership would steadily decline as the decades crept along, with only about 600 reported members by the 1970s, surely not helped by a fire in the late 1980s that would mark a huge blow to attendance. Euclid Avenue Baptist Church voted to vacate their building and merge with Parklane Baptist Church on Washington Ave. The combined churches met at the Parklane building after the merger. The merged church built the current building and renamed the congregation Shepherd of the Hill Church when the church moved to the new building, at 400 E Beaver Creek Dr., in the early 2000’s.
Greater First Church of God renovated the building and met there until they dissolved in 2020 after their pastor, Donald Derrickson’s, passing. Among the streets that once harbored the homes of so many of its members is now one named after one of its most notable leaders, a dead-end road labeled Donald Lee Derrickson Avenue.
The church was demolished and the land bought out by developers in 2021, though one can still imagine its former glory when skating by on the highway. Much of its history still exists in stories and archives, even if its tangible presence has been replaced.
Adam Delahoussaye is a freelance writer for the KnoxTNToday who loves telling stories about music, arts and culture in and around his hometown.
Have a story for Adam? He can be reached at email or text 865-919-5059 with your story idea.
