First Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The First Baptist Church of Dallas — organized in 1868, still standing on the very same ground it always has. That right there is the kind of stubbornness Texas respects.

Now let me set the scene. Dallas in 1871 was a frontier town of about two thousand, five hundred souls. Dust, promise, and not a whole lot else.

And the congregation of this church needed a building. They didn't have the money just lying around, so they did what determined people do — they got to work. Members wove rugs.

They made hominy, preserves, and cheese. They hauled all of it out to fairs near Dallas and sold every last bit until they had enough to put up a one-room frame structure right here on this site. One room.

Built on the proceeds of homemade cheese and hand-woven rugs. I want you to sit with that for a moment. By 1890, the congregation had grown into something grander — a section of a Victorian-style red brick building went up, and that building is still here today, making this the only downtown Dallas church still standing on its original site.

Same dirt. Same ground those rug-weavers walked. Then there's George W.

Truett. A noted minister, the marker calls him, and forty-seven years as pastor of this church says everything the word noted is trying to say. He was succeeded in 1944 by W.

A. Criswell. One chapter closing, another opening, on the same corner where somebody once sold a jar of preserves to build a house of worship.

That's a foundation worth keeping.

What the marker says

(The First Baptist Church in Dallas) Organized 1868; first building (1871) on this site was one-room frame structure, which members financed by weaving rugs, making hominy, preserves, and cheese to sell at fairs near Dallas, then a frontier town of 2,500. Section of Victorian-style, red brick building was erected 1890; is only downtown Dallas Church still on original site. George W. Truett, noted minister, was pastor here 47 years and was succeeded by W. A. Criswell, 1944. RTHL - 1968