The state-of-the art building is something members could not have imagined when, in 1873, the simple clapboard church was carried by wagon from near University Lake to the base of Morgan's Creek two miles southwest of Chapel Hill, on land donated by Elder George Purefoy.

Reasons for the move vary, says church historian Ruth Vickers, whose family history is interwoven with the church's.

"It was rumored that the Methodists were getting too much of a hold down in this neck of the woods [Orange/Chatham County line], so the church was moved down here, to make a larger "Baptist" presence," she said.

Vickers family, the Hundleys, are originally from Carrboro. As a child she and her parents attended Carrboro Baptist Church downtown (now the Century Center). Her father, Chris Hundley, ran a Carrboro grocery but decided to move his family down into the county in 1941.

"My Aunt Daisy was horrified when she discovered we were moving 'into the sticks,'" Vickers said. "She'd come to our house on Poplar Street and wring our hands and cry over us moving to a 'rock pile of a hill' without running water or bathrooms!"

It wasn't that rural, of course, but according to her city-dwelling aunt, moving out to the Orange-Chatham County line was sure to be the end of them all.

Vickers' parents quickly became involved with Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, and her mother Bessie joined the Home Demonstration Club. The clubs encouraged women in their homemaking endeavors and were popular during and after World War II.

Early in the '40s, the church began to discuss adding an outbuilding for events and Sunday School classrooms. Vickers recalls there were many heated discussions, as some members opposed raising money on the church property itself.

The women of the Home Demonstration Club began to chat, and Vickers' mother, Bessie, who had been very involved in the Brunswick Stew Supper fundraisers that were key in building the Carrboro Baptist Church, helped lead the women to see funds got raised one way or the other. Brunswick Stew was a salable item, but the catch was that it wasn't permitted to be sold on church property according to the old guard's way of thinking.

In 1940, when Vickers' father built the house she still lives in today, he built a full basement with a dirt floor and rock walls, the first of its kind in the area. As the church continued to debate where to hold the Brunswick Stew Suppers, Vickers' mother stepped forward.

In 1948-49, the ladies of the Home Demonstration Club cooked gallons of stew at home and brought it to the Hundleys' home. There in the basement a large wood-stove warmed the stew and the ladies decorated card tables, with red and white tablecloths and candles.

"This was the beginning of the fundraising," Vickers said. "And the community had a really great response, as families came and either ate their stew in the basement or took it home to eat."

The ladies soon raised enough to build a cinder-block building. It was primitive, but at least it was a place to hold the now twice-yearly "Brunswick Stew & BBQ Cookins," still held today. Though that cinder-block building was remodeled over the years, it remained the church's one outbuilding and was too small to attend to the growing needs.

In 2006, a campaign began to raise the money for a fellowship hall. The Building Campaign was chaired by Scott Blackwood, who with Eddie Williams, Charles Harrison and minister Dennis Hill kicked off an intense campaign. Blackwood died in late 2006, and fundraising slowed. Bob Royster was chosen as Blackwood's successor and has continued to oversee the building project.

Today's dedication will be followed by the annual homecoming, which has previously been held outdoors. Vickers believes the determination her mother and the ladies of the Home Demonstration Club showed more than 50 years ago, when they devised a plan to provide their church with the space it needed, is reflected in the members today who are taking Chapel Hill's oldest standing Baptist church into its third century. Services start at 11 a.m., followed by the dedication and homecoming.