As it turned out, dividing the first church, known throughout its history as The Chapel, did not solve the problem of overcrowding. Therefore, members chose a new building site in March 1935. In June 1936, plans for the current 10,585 square-foot building were approved. The church selected Larry C. Havstad as builder. Four hundred guests witnessed a groundbreaking ceremony for the 1,500-seat church on August 1, 1937.
According to long-time member Elmer J. Digneo, three of the stained glass windows—the two above the transepts and the Good Shepherd behind the baptistery—were made especially for the church. The Rose Window over the main entrance was made in the 1890s and originally installed in a church in Pasadena. When built and furnished, the actual cost of the church was $66,451.24.
A Missionary Volunteer Society meeting, held Friday evening, December 31, 1937, became the first service conducted in the new sanctuary. The next morning, New Year’s Day, 1938, the College Church and the Loma Linda Church congregations met with visitors from all over Southern California, totaling 1,750, to inaugurate the new sanctuary.
CME President, Dr. Percy T. Magan, preached a sermon, “What Mean Ye by These Stones?" (Joshua 4:6). A half-hour of organ and choir music preceded an afternoon service. The organist was 18-year-old Elmer Digneo, the boy who had been given permission to practice on the same organ in the Chapel six years earlier. Years later (1941), through the persuasive efforts of Pastor W. W. White, Mr. Charles P. Skouras, President of Fox Theaters, donated an organ to the new church from the San Bernardino Fox Theater.
The congregation numbering nearly 1,000 dedicated the new church debt-free on January 21, 1939.
The congregation built Linda Hall in 1960 to provide a multipurpose room and kitchen. They allocated the lower level of the two-story building to the Dorcas Society, an organization named after a woman in the Bible, started in 1915 to meet community needs. The church started a second service on October 13, 1963, to accommodate its growing 1,730 membership. It also launched a $400,000 expansion program to add administrative offices and more educational facilities.
The church renovated the sanctuary in 1967 with padded oak pews, new carpet, and a new platform. The north wing addition, completed in 1976, added class rooms and main floor restrooms.
On January 25, 1992, the Campus Hill Church dedicated its “new” 58-rank Casavant Freres Pipe Organ, a 1925 Opus 1110 model originally installed in a Christian Science church in Philadelphia. The organ was disassembled, crated, shipped to Loma Linda, refurbished and installed under the leadership of Pastor Robert Villanueva, Gary McLarty, MD, and Mr. Elmer Digneo (organist and Chair of the church’s Organ Committee). According to Digneo, the untiring efforts of committed volunteers made it possible to have what he labeled, “this magnificent instrument” at enormous savings. “It has enriched the church’s services and has been used for concerts and for meetings of the American Guild of Organists,” he said.
In 2005, the Campus Hill Church underwent a $5.8 million renovation to better accommodate its 1,500 members. The project included replacement of deteriorated wood and plaster, new pews, and a renovated platform. Television screens served attendees in the balcony. The “makeover” was completed by January 2006, in time for the congregation’s Centennial Celebration.
On January 6, 1906, the congregation named themselves The Loma Linda Seventh-day Adventist Church. Over time, with its own dedicated structures, it became known as “The Chapel,” “The Hill Church” and “The Church on the Hill.” During the 1950’s, church bulletins used the name “First Church of Seventh-day Adventists of Loma Linda.” Responding to a recommendation by the Southeastern California Conference that the church should indicate a relationship to Loma Linda University, in December 1966 the Church Board approved the name, “The Campus Hill Church of Seventh-day Adventists.