Folding Chairs on the Sand

Sue Harford Ferdig Allerton

Description

Building a city in the middle of a barren desert was surely the dream of a madman or a genius. This is the task that excited Cliff Henderson to undertake when he saw the barren white sand of Coachella Valley shortly after General Patton’s Desert Training Center shut down. There was only one problem: Cliff knew he could not proceed alone since he relied on Psalms 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, he labors in vain that build it.” What, he wondered, did that mean to him?

Little did Cliff Henderson know when he launched his idea to develop the ‘Sand Hole,’ Coachella Valley, into the upscale city of Palm Desert the revelations that lay before him. His endeavor led him to ‘discover’ a small group of faithful bible readers on his newly purchased land. Joining them, the group grew to become the church of General Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. The history of the early church begins with folding chairs on the desert sand under the blue sky to a magnificent church building that seats more than a thousand people.

The city of Palm Desert that Cliff developed became everything he had hoped as the ‘smartest address in the desert.’ Movie stars and captains of industry bought property to build their vacation and retirement homes designed by some of the finest architects of desert homes. The Palm Desert shopping district, El Paseo, favorably competed with upscale shopping districts of New York and Hollywood. Soon magnificent resorts with 18-hole golf courses went in along with golfing fundraisers that started with the words, Bob Hope Classics. With the development of Palm Desert, neighboring areas developed as well, all upscale and host to many different sports, such as tennis, swimming, golfing, bicycling, and triathlons.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Cliff Henderson
• National Air Races
• Pan-Pacific Auditorium
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Religion
• Dwight David Eisenhower

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664287792
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

FOLDING CHAIRS ON THE SAND
Cliff Henderson, Founder of Palm Desert and its Church of a U.S. President
SUE HARFORD FERDIG ALLERTON


Copyright © 2023 Sue Harford Ferdig Allerton.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8778-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8780-8 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8779-2 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022923797
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 7/24/2023
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Part I: The Early Years
Chapter 1The ‘Sand Hole’
Chapter 2The First Trains in Coachella Valley
Chapter 3The McCallums
Chapter 4May and Pearl
Chapter 5Nellie Coffman and the Desert Inn
Chapter 6Pearl and the Oasis Hotel
Chapter 7Early Palm Springs
Chapter 8The Desert Airpark
Part II: Cliff Henderson
Chapter 9The Henderson Family
Chapter 10Akron, Colorado, and the Red Alco Truck, 1912
Chapter 11Growing Up
Chapter 12Henderson Family Thanksgiving
Chapter 13Flying and Barnstorming
Chapter 14The Nash Dealership
Chapter 15Clover Field
Chapter 16The Douglas World Cruisers and the First Aerial Circumnavigation
Chapter 17Building Apartments
Chapter 18Planning a National Air Race
Chapter 19The 1928 Los Angeles National Air Races
Chapter 20Cleveland
Chapter 21The Pan-Pacific Auditorium
Chapter 22Chateau Avion
Part III: A Dream Spot
Chapter 23The Cove
Chapter 24First Things First
Chapter 25Randall
Chapter 26Discovering the “Faithful Few”
Chapter 27Preparing to Build
Chapter 28The Desert Magazine
Chapter 29The Reverend Dr. Macartney
Chapter 30Church Square, 1948-1950
Part IV: A City Is Born
Chapter 31The Shadow Mountain Resort Grand Opening
Chapter 32The Second Day
Chapter 33After the Party
Chapter 34Looking to the Future
Chapter 35Tommy Tomson
Chapter 36The Barn, 1949
Chapter 37A Question of Affiliation, 1949-1950
Chapter 38Building a Church, 1950
Chapter 39Jimmy Doolittle and the Tokyo Raiders’ Reunion
Chapter 40The First Church in Palm Desert, 1950
Chapter 41Dr. Mac Retires Again
Chapter 42Dr. Baker, Dr. McClain, and Dr. Dunlap
Part V: A Church Of A U. S. President
Chapter 43The President and Mamie Eisenhower
Chapter 44Marian Marsh
Chapter 45The Eisenhowers Join the Church
Chapter 46The Reverend Dean Miller
Chapter 47The Draw and the Dilemma
Chapter 48The Building Committee
Chapter 49The Kickoff Dinner
Chapter 50The ‘Frontliners’
Chapter 51Ideas Abound, 1965
Chapter 52A New and Bigger Church
Chapter 53A Church of a U. S. President, 1968
Chapter 54The Death of a President
Chapter 55Mamie and More Remembrances
Chapter 56Cliff’s Memories
Chapter 57‘Dean’s Day’
 
Epilogue
Timeline
Ministers of Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church
Palm Desert Community Church Members 1948
Guestbook Register at Groundbreaking Ceremony February 1950
References
Introduction by William Bramer
Elder, President of Trustees, Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church
The Coachella Valley: native Americans; pioneers; railroad barons; outlaws; stars of film and television, home of US presidents, athletes, farmers, business magnates and more—all interacting through the decades as the ‘Sand Hole’ is transformed into a series of bustling communities that is today referred to collectively as Coachella Valley.
Author Sue H. F. Allerton takes us on a fact-filled journey of discovery beginning with the arrival of the McCallum settlers in 1884. They are followed by many others including the Coffman, Murray, and Henderson families. There was also a continuing influx of immigrants, business leaders, film celebrities, sports figures and others.... all coming to the desert to explore and settle down. Why? The arid desert is wind-blown, uncomfortably hot in the summer and less so in winter with little or no rain. This did not stop the persistent grit and determination of the early ‘Sand Hole’ pioneers.
Dive into this well-researched narrative to discover why the desert was, and remains, so attractive to visitors and residents today. From world class athletes and business entrepreneurs to movie stars and aviation pioneers like Jackie Cochran, Jimmie Doolittle, and Clifford Henderson, who founded Palm Desert and its ‘church of a President.’ Palm Desert has been a haven for movie stars, international film and music festivals, tennis and golf tournaments and everyday citizens and farmers who had the grit and gumption to build and grow the city of Palm Desert into the thriving community we enjoy today with its attractions, businesses, hospitals, colleges, and places of worship.
This narrative will be especially interesting to those familiar with Palm Desert. At the center of the story is Cliff Henderson’s founding of the community of Palm Desert and, in particular, the Palm Desert Community (Presbyterian) Church. Its first parishioners were discovered meeting in the ‘Sand Hole,’ the open desert in early 1945. This ‘church’ had no walls or pews, no hymn books or candles, and no minister. With prayer, faith, and good deal of grit, they built a small church which in short order was overrun with worshippers. With this, they were encouraged and motivated to build a larger, magnificent church south of Highway 111 on route 74, with past-President Dwight D. Eisenhower serving as honorary building committee chair. With its myriad of challenges through the years, the church is still thriving today as the Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church.
Enjoy this special read of those who preceded you in building a beautiful, diverse, and thriving community in which to raise families, worship, educate, and experience life to the fullest extent possible.
________________
William L. Bramer, BSBA West Virginia University 1964; EMBA Claremont Graduate Drucker School 2007
FUTUREWORK , “Putting Knowledge to Work in the Knowledge Economy”; Free Press. 1994. Winslow and Bramer, Partner, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture LLP), Retired.
How I Came to Write This Book
New to Palm Desert, my husband and I moved to a home right across the street from the Palm Desert Community Presbyterian Church and we began attending.
When I asked members what the history of the church was, I received comments such as the early church “meeting in a barn,” “sitting on folding chairs on the sand,” “preaching from a horse,” and similar interesting comments that piqued my curiosity. Interestingly, the tellers could never tell more, and I had lots of questions. These tidbits had been handed down over time but with no understanding of why they occurred.
In mid-2017, my third year at Trevecca Nazarene University, working on a master’s degree in Ministry and Theology, I was assigned to write a history about the church I attended. In doing research for the assignment, I uncovered enough interesting information that required greater research and answers to my questions, which I left for later.
After graduation, I began serious research on the history of the Palm Desert Community Church. There was no thought to write a book, I was merely going through the archives and scrapbooks to satisfy my own curiosity. This led me to the Palm Desert Library, the Shadow Mountain Resort, newspaper archives, and the Historical Society of Palm Desert. The more I uncovered, the more I thought this information had to be told.
The history of the church and the city of Palm Desert are tightly woven together, a part of each other’s history. This is a story of faith and inspiration, stories of prayer and dreams, of lives lived by ordinary people who did extraordinary things. Much has been forgotten through the years, recalled only in old photographs or newspaper clippings. It is a story of great accomplishments that deserve to be remembered and told time and time again.
We begin by taking a brief look back in time to a young Coachella Valley, first called the ‘Sand Hole’ in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Indians of the Colorado Desert were its first residents, followed by the McCallum family, the first non-Indian residents in 1884. Following were other notable early desert pioneers, such as Nellie Coffman, Dr. Murray Welwood, Hank Gogerty, and Pearl McManus.
We meet Cliff Henderson as a youth who grew up in a large mi