First Baptist Church of Alvarado

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Settlers came to Alvarado back in the 1850s, and the Baptists among them didn't wait around long before they started findin' each other. Now, the marker says they're believed to have gathered for several years before they made it official; and when they finally did, they picked a date worth rememberin': October 6, 1861.

That's your founding day for the First Baptist Church of Alvarado. In Johnson County, Texas, in the middle of a world that was already crackin' at the seams, these folks sat down together and said, we're a church. In those early days, they didn't have a building to call their own.

They shared the community's Union Building, a place that was already home to a school and three other denominations. Picture that. Four different congregations and a schoolhouse, all under one roof.

You had to know whose Sunday it was. Leading that young Baptist congregation was Bro. William C.

Gentry, the first pastor of the group. And he wasn't content to just tend the flock he had. The congregation went out to Willow Springs, holding revival meetings to bring new members in.

They were buildin' something. Then came 1877; sixteen years after that founding day; and the Alvarado congregation finally moved into a sanctuary of their own. No more sharin' the Union Building, no more borrowin' space.

Their own four walls. The years kept rollin', as years do, and the church kept buildin' new facilities, growin' right along with Alvarado itself. By the turn of the 21st century, they'd relocated to right here where you're standin'.

A congregation that started with settlers in the 1850s, found its footing in 1861, and is still out here servin' the community through a variety of programs today. Some roots go deep enough that nothing pulls 'em loose.

What the marker says

Settlers came to Alvarado in the 1850s, and area Baptists are believed to have gathered for several years before formally organizing a church on October 6, 1861. Members first met at the community's Union Building, shared by a school and three other denominations. Bro. William C. Gentry served as the first pastor of the group, which recruited new members with revival meetings in nearby Willow Springs. The Alvarado congregation moved into its own sanctuary in 1877. Over the years, it has built new facilities, relocating here at the turn of the 21st century. It continues efforts to serve the community through a variety of programs. (2004)