"On September 26, 1920, Rev. Ray D. Cranmer began an eleven-year term as pastor of the Universalist Church on Green Street. He was considered well-trained in preaching and thoroughly schooled in “some of the newer skills of parish work and church administration.” In the first 18 months of his leadership, 50 people joined the church, and attendance averaged around 100 each Sunday. 

At that time, the church owned three houses. Costs of insurance, property taxes, sewage/lighting/paving assessments, and repairs, plus trouble with tenants added to the “unpleasantness of being a wealthy landlord.” The church sold the parsonage and a house on West Illinois and used the procedures for regular operations and occasional large purchases. In April 1923, the coal heating of the church was augmented by a gas burner in the minister’s study and a gas log grate upstairs. 

In the Summer of 1924, the music committee and Rev. Cranmer supported the idea of installing a pipe organ in the church. The Board of Trustees and Parish adopted a resolution, a committee was established under the leadership of Miss Jaques, and the Wicks Organ Company bid $3655 to install the organ. The actual instrument and installation cost $3930.49. The organ was dedicated with a concert performed in the Fall of 1925 by Professor Lloyd Morey of the University of Illinois, who became the President of the University of Illinois in 1954 and the Illinois State Auditor of Public Accounts in 1956."