First Baptist Church of Pharr

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Seven. That's the number you need to hold onto as we roll through Pharr.

Not seven hundred, not seventy. Seven charter members, gathered together in 1913, and from that small circle they built something that's still standing today. The Rev.

A. J. Seale took on the role of first pastor, and in those earliest days the congregation didn't have a building to call their own.

They worshipped in a school building, making do, which is about as Texas a thing as you can do. That went on until 1916, when a sanctuary finally went up on land set aside by the Pharr Townsite Company. A place of their own, at last.

From there, the work kept growing. A Sunday School took shape. A youth organization came together.

A Women's Missionary Society was organized. And here's a detail worth sittin' with: this congregation helped establish not one but two local Hispanic churches, reaching beyond their own walls into the broader community. The years kept coming, and the congregation kept adding facilities as the need arose.

Then in 1994, a new sanctuary was built right here on that same ground. From seven people meeting in a borrowed schoolroom to a congregation still running outreach programs more than eighty years on. Seven is a number that, in the right hands, turns out to be more than enough.

What the marker says

This church was established by seven charter members in 1913. The Rev. A. J. Seale served as first pastor. Early worship services were held in a school building until 1916 when a sanctuary was built on land set aside by the Pharr Townsite Company. A Sunday School, youth organization, and Women's Missionary Society were organized. The congregation, which helped establish two local Hispanic churches, has added several facilities over the years. A new sanctuary was built here in 1994. First Baptist Church of Pharr continues to serve the area with a variety of outreach programs. (1995)