First Baptist Church of Fort Davis

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Way out in the Davis Mountains, in the town of Fort Davis, there's a Baptist congregation with a story that starts small, real small, and stretches out longer than a West Texas highway. We're talkin' about the First Baptist Church of Fort Davis, and friend, it did not begin with grand timber and stained glass.

It began with two reverends and six people willing to show up. The Rev. L.

R. Millican and the Rev. D.

B. Rose established this church in 1896. Six charter members.

You could fit that whole founding congregation in the bed of a pickup truck and still have room for the hymnal. Now here's where the story gets interesting, and a little unorthodox, depending on your denomination. For years, the Baptists didn't have a building to call their own.

So every other Sunday, they'd share space with the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations right there in Fort Davis. Alternate Sundays. You can imagine the scheduling.

The Methodists are clearing out, the Baptists are filing in, and everybody's trying to be neighborly about the whole arrangement. That went on for a good long while; all the way until 1921. And when the Baptists finally acquired a permanent home?

It was a former skating rink. And a theater. Whatever your imagination is conjuring right now, I'd say lean into it, because that is exactly what the marker says.

A skating rink slash theater became the house of worship. Now, they didn't stop there. In 1942, the congregation erected a more traditional church building, something that looked the part from the outside.

But by then, this church had already proved it didn't need the right walls to do the right work. The congregation went on to sponsor two mission churches and sent several missionaries all the way down into Mexico. They stayed active in community life right there in Jeff Davis County.

And the marker, placed in 1997, notes that by that point the church had served the area for more than a hundred years. Six charter members in 1896. A skating rink for a sanctuary.

A congregation that kept right on going. Some things out here in West Texas, they just endure.

What the marker says

The Rev. L. R. Millican and the Rev. D. B. Rose established this church in 1896 with six charter members. Services were held on alternate Sundays in churches shared with the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations until 1921 when the Baptists acquired a former skating rink/theater. A more traditional church building was erected in 1942. The congregation sponsored two mission churches and several missionaries in Mexico and is active in community activities. The church has served the area for more than 100 years. (1997)