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First Baptist of Richmond Founders of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Texas were descendants of Austin’s first 300 families who came to Texas in the 1850s and settled in what is now known as Fort Bend County, with Richmond being the county seat. In the 1880s, Baptist descendants of the 300 were concerned about their own spiritual welfare and the spiritual affairs of the community. They organized a church which later became the First Baptist Church of Richmond. On July 19, 1885, the First Baptist Church was organized, but a building was not built until four years later. Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, president of Baylor University, spoke at the dedication service for its first house of worship in 1889. Calamity struck the City of Richmond during the Great Flood of 1889. Water covered parts of the city for several days. The city hadn’t recovered from the flood when another catastrophe, the Great Storm of September 8, 1900, hit Richmond. The Baptist Church was destroyed, the Methodist Church was badly damaged, but the Episcopal Church was unscathed. Members of the Episcopal Church generously offered a place for these churches to meet until they could rebuild. Rebuild they did. By 1902, the Baptist church was finished. In 1929, the church demolished the old building for construction of a new one. While the church building was under construction, the church met in the Queen Theater. On February 18, 1932, Dr George W. Truett was the principal speaker at the dedication service for the new church building. In 1953, the church expanded and refurbished its facilities. The newly renovated building was dedicated in May 1953. Under Rev. Wade O. Skinner, the church had its first library and librarian, Mrs. Frankie Langston. Mrs. Jane Scott followed her in that position. The church continued to grow in spirit and number, so it became necessary to have more space. In 1959, Mrs. A.P. George made a generous gift to the church for building improvements. After this renovation, between 1960 and 1966, the library tripled its space by moving to the education building. At this time, many books were added to the library, and Barbara Baethe and Tommye Slone began processing them. The library remained in the education building until a fire destroyed the sanctuary in September 1990. Church offices were relocated from the sanctuary into the education building space previously occupied by the library. While the sanctuary was being rebuilt, most of the books that survived the fire were packed away. The new sanctuary was completed and dedicated in August 1993. Before the books were unpacked, another fire devastated the education building on July, 12, 1998. The new education building was dedicated in December 1999, and it provided space for the library on the second floor. Under the supervision of our pastor, Dr. John Lockhart, the few books that survived the second fire were unpacked by the librarian, Julie Lewitt. Beautiful shelves were built, and she started processing the books. She moved away before the processing could be completed. One Sunday morning after church, as Tommye Slone was leaving the sanctuary, she told Dr. Lockhart that she dreamed they were putting the church library on-line. He said, “I think that we could do that.” She is now the church librarian, and the library has a collection of 4,000 books. New bookshelves have been added. Though our library is small, it serves a congregation of approximately 680 resident members. Top | |||
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