Bass, Hardie
Hardie Bass was born February 11, 1908, in Hallsville, Texas, to Rev. Hardie Cain and Anna Garrison Bass. He studied architecture at Georgia Tech University. He married Julie Henderson in 1934. Bass served as the first full-time Architect for the Church Architecture Department of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Prior to hiring Bass, the Board had utilized consultant architects. He died August 18, 1993, in Savannah, Georgia.
This oral history interview was conducted in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Sunday School Board, SBC, by Marian Keegan, Archivist with the Dargan-Carver Library in 1973. In the interview, Bass describes his growing up years in Texas, studying architecture at Georgia Tech, and events that led to his employment with the Church Architecture Department at the Board. He gives his impressions of W. A. Harold of the Church Architecture Department and discusses the Department’s early history and why Southern Baptists needed their own Church Architecture Department. Bass discusses projects and buildings the Department designed at Ridgecrest and Glorieta and how important it was to him to help small country churches with architectural designs. He emphasizes how the Church Architecture Department helped design spaces for the growing number of educational and church life programs offered by the Board in the mid-twentieth century.
