In 1954, Floyd Hipp, a lay prison minister, and his wife did not fathom that the needs of six children would bring a community together in the ways that it has as Bethel formed its ministry over the last seventy years. Within months of rescuing six boys from homelessness, Brother Hipp was gifted the Hassler house on Signal Mountain by Mrs. J.S. Faucette and Mrs. R.T. Poindexter. On June 8, 1954, Bethel Bible School was officially sanctioned, and a board of directors was chosen by Brother Hipp.
Dr. J.P. McCallie of the McCallie School offered beds and other needs for the children of Bethel. Just two years later, Dr. McCallie called upon his own community to shelter the children after a fire destroyed the Hassler House. As Bethel continued to grow while operating on a deteriorating campus, Ike Keay, named Executive Director in 1964, saw the need for a new property with improved living quarters and closer to active community.
In 1969, the campus moved from Signal Mountain to a fifty-acre campus in Hixson, TN and the name of the ministry was officially changed to Bethel Bible Village. Today, the cottages that house the residents are named in honor of so many who were crucial to Bethel in its earliest days, including Hipp cottage, Poindexter cottage, and McCallie cottage. A cottage is also named for Floyd Hipp’s daughter, Eleonore Williams, appropriately named Williams Cottage.
Today, Bethel Bible Village is thriving, and continues the mission to serve children facing adversity. The success of Bethel was only made possible by the gifts and efforts of the loving community, friends, and family. When speaking of Bethel in one of her last interviews, Eleonore Williams, who passed away in 2023, spoke about the persistence of the ministry with pride. “Bethel has done well. It has adjusted what needed to be done to be able to take care of the needs.”