ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994                   TAG: 9411100003
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


`TABERNACLE' IN SALEM SOLD TO RETIRED ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON

A building used for evangelical Christian missionary camp meetings for nearly 100 years has been sold to retired orthopedic surgeon Dr. Richard Fisher.

The old frame structure at Third and Colorado streets in Salem known as "the tabernacle" was used for its last camp meeting in the summer of 1993. The Rev. Earl T. Gentry, a retired Wesleyan Church pastor and a moving spirit behind the mission rallies for nearly 40 years, said age and lack of financial support and attendance finally ended a summer tradition that began in 1896.

Gentry, 76, and a resident of Salem, said a rally is tentatively planned in 1996 to mark the centennial of the camp meetings. He hopes that it will take place and attract some of the thousands of Christians who supported the services over the years.

Fisher wants to preserve the building, which needs much repair. He bought the old Salem Post Office several years ago and converted it to several offices in the center of downtown.

Gentry said the board that staged the annual summer services reluctantly concluded last fall that the time had come to quit. Several months were required to settle the legal affairs and get the property on the market.

In the past, the camp meeting ran for 10 days or more with services at night and on Sunday afternoons. It featured several missionaries to overseas countries and Christian workers in the United States. They displayed artifacts and urged financial support for evangelism. Special gospel music also was part of the services, which, Gentry said, attracted an increasingly elderly group of supporters.

In better days, offerings from the services amounted to $10,000 or more, Gentry recalled. He said any money left over from the sale will go to World Gospel Missions and OMS International, the two evangelical Christian agencies that sent their workers to Salem.

Fisher noted that, although the camp meetings were held for 97 years, the cornerstone of the tabernacle building bears the date 1922. He said he may explore the history of the building, perhaps getting it an official historical designation, which the old post office has.

The doctor said his woodworking hobby may play some part in his use of the building, but his plans are undecided.



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