On January 6, 1906, a 16-member congregation officially organized the first Loma Linda Seventh-day Adventist Church. Employees of the new Loma Linda Sanitarium, started conducting religious services in the Sanitarium parlor. John A. Burden, the co-founder of the institution, and his wife Eleanor Baxter-Burden signed the church clerk’s book first. The names of John and Mary Nichol and their daughter Mollie followed. Francis D. Nichol, the future editor of The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald and namesake of Nichol Hall, at age 8 was too young to join at the time.
The following Sabbath, January 13, the congregation approved the nominating committee report, and John Burden became first elder. Twenty-seven others expressed their intention to join as soon as they could secure letters of transfer, and one asked to join by baptism.
The church soon organized a school board and opened a one-teacher school with six students. Lavina A. Baxter (one of Mrs. Burden’s sisters) taught the children in a wooden-floored tent located near what is now the west entrance of Kate Lindsay Hall. One windy day, a bull pastured across the road became enraged by the flapping of the tent canvas, so he demolished the “school house” and its furniture. Fortunately school was not in session at the time! In 1907, Miss Baxter graduated in the first class of the Nurses’ Training School. Later, she became Lavina A. Herzer, MD, a member of the first class of physicians to graduate from the College of Medical Evangelists (CME) in 1914. She was John Burden’s sister-in-law.
On April 14, 1906, Ellen G. White, co-founder of the Loma Linda Sanitarium, spoke to the newly organized church on “Lessons from the First Chapter of Second Peter.” The next day she spoke at the dedication of the Sanitarium. Altogether, she spoke about 12 times in Loma Linda, the last time on November 6, 1912. Clarence Harlow, a long-time resident of Loma Linda, remembered as a child seeing Mrs. White and John Burden walking together on the hill. His recollection provided insight into the dynamics and respect early personnel maintained for the organization’s co-founders.
As the congregation grew, it met in the Assembly Hall on the crest of the hill. The school also moved to the Assembly Hall, where it remained until 1908, when the institution relocated its elementary school to a two-teacher, two-room building constructed by volunteer labor for $750. It perched on a rise of land at the northeast shoulder of the hill, across from the future site of the Drayson Center.
In 1910, as the local membership grew dramatically, CME asked Mr. Fred Drake to design and build “The Chapel” on the northwest slope of the hill (close to the present-day main entrance to Kate Lindsay Hall). The Sanitarium deducted volunteer pledges from the pay of institutional "helpers" to fund the new Chapel.
To raise money for the Chapel's "opera seats," Mrs. S. S. Merrill, wife of John Burden's assistant and church treasurer, posted a small-scale map of the chapel and its seating arrangements in sight of the patient's business office. When people inquired about it, they would often buy one to a dozen of the folding seats for about $2 each. Because of the appalling lack of housing for young men, student physicians Charles Harrison and Donald Davenport lived in the Chapel Belfry.
The outside of the Chapel was painted green and the inside stained brown with crude oil mixed with kerosene. At first knees testified as to who had knelt for prayer and who had not. Eventually, worshipers had to kneel on a hymnbook or paper to keep from staining their knees and clothing. In 1916, the janitor was instructed to stop the common practice of oiling the floors. Meanwhile, children met on the ground floor under the platform and pastor's study in the west corner of the fan-shaped building.
Confidently, the congregation judged The Chapel to be large enough for any future needs, including graduation services. When Ellen G. White entered the Chapel for the first time, however, she remarked, "This is all very nice, but it is too small." She added, "You people have no idea what this place will become if you are faithful." This statement was made within five years of the start of the institution by 35 young people, who volunteered their time and ate out of the institution’s garden. Not surprisingly, the congregation quickly outgrew the new facility, designed to seat about 750. Loma Linda University Health now employs about 15,000 employees, many of whom worship in 20 area SDA churches.
Ellen White died on Friday, July 16, 1915 at "Elmshaven," her home near St. Helena, California. Harold Shryock, MD, remembered as a nine-year-old boy, hearing a solemn announcement of her death the next day at Sabbath morning church services in Loma Linda.
A 1919 aerial photo shows the Chapel’s proximity to the original Loma Linda Sanitarium. It stood over the present-day entrance stairway to Kate Lindsay Hall. The Chapel’s antique pulpit is now on display in the Heritage Research Center of the Del E. Webb Memorial Library.