First Baptist Church to mark bicentennial this weekend

Built in the 1860s facing south (pictured here), and later renovated facing east, the First Baptist Church building at Poplar and Spring streets was one of four homes the congregation has had during its 200-year history.

Courtesy photo

NOTE: The original version of this story incorrectly listed the time of the Heritage Wall unveiling on Saturday. The ceremony will take place at noon.

Just weeks after Putnam County was officially organized as a county, a church came into existence on May 4, 1822 as the Baptist Church of Christ of Big Walnut.

The name “Greencastle” wasn’t exactly in common use yet, as Ephraim Dukes had founded the settlement just the year before, and it wasn’t to be officially recognized as a town until 1849 (then a city in 1861).

Yet that church survives to this day as First Baptist Church of Greencastle, with bicentennial celebrations planned this weekend.

Festivities will begin at noon on Saturday with the unveiling of a plaque on the Heritage Wall on the east side of Wilson’s Photography at Washington and Vine streets in Greencastle. This event will be open to the public.

That evening, a private dinner and program is planned featuring comments from current and former members as well as, most notably, Paul Bowen, who served as pastor for 30 years.

“People are coming in that some of us haven’t seen in years,” longtime member Howard Brooks said.

Then on Sunday morning, 10 a.m. worship service will feature some extra festivities aside from Pastor Tom Blodgett’s message, including a proclamation from Mayor Bill Dory and a visit from a representative of American Baptist Churches USA.

It should be quite the weekend for parishioners as they celebrate being the oldest church congregation (though not church building, as the Methodists of Putnamville will point out) in Putnam County.

The plaque to be dedicated on the Heritage Wall features an excerpt from a historical document that makes note of “a council called to convene at Greencastle Saturday before the first Sabbath in May 1822, for the purpose of organizing and constituting a regular Baptist church.”

The council was composed partly of elders from Lamb’s Bottom church and White River church, names that don’t exactly ring a bell locally some two centuries later.

“After the council was organized, the door of the church was opened for the reception of members,” which initially included such surnames as Sherrell, Arthur, Smith, Leatherman, DeVore, Skelton and Jones.

First Baptist Church found its first permanent location in 1839 in a brick structure at the corner of of Franklin and Market streets.

Courtesy photo

The congregation initially met without a physical home, instead gathering in residences.

“It’s hard to imagine what Greencastle must have been like back then,” Brooks said.

In 1839, the church was able to build a brick structure on the southwest corner of Franklin and Madison streets — what is now the parking lot across from the Greencastle Moose Lodge.

Built in the 1860s facing south, and later renovated facing east (pictured here), the First Baptist Church building at Poplar and Spring streets was one of four homes the congregation has had during its 200-year history.

Courtesy photo

In 1859, during the first pastorate of J.S. Gillespie, the church acquired the lot at the corner of Poplar and Water (now Spring) streets. That building was destroyed by tornado in November 1867, but a new structure facing south to Poplar Street took its place.

As the church grew in the 1920s, a basement and set of classrooms were added, with the additions making the entrance face east toward Spring Street instead of Poplar.

“It’s interesting just to think about the history of the church and how few places we’ve been,” Brooks said.

However, one more move was in the works, as the church was growing again in the 1960s.

First Baptist Church of Greencastle has occupied its current location on Judson Drive since 1969.

Courtesy photo

The current Judson Drive site, which was described at the time as “just north of State Road 240,” was acquired, and the church spent two years meeting at the downtown Greencastle Junior High School while the new building was being constructed.

The current building finally opened in 1969, with a new sanctuary added in 1983 and a preschool also established in the ’80s.

Even after more than half a century, though, some ties to Spring Street remain.

“We still have some folks who have connections back to Spring Street,” Brooks said, noting that Joe and Helen Zeiner were married in the old building.

While the weekend will be a chance to celebrate the past of First Baptist, Books and Blodgett are even more looking forward to the church’s future.

“It’s exciting — church attendance is booming,” Brooks said. “We had six baptisms on Easter Sunday.”

Blodgett, who has been at First Baptist for three years and senior pastor since January 2021, concurs.

“The church has a whole lot of beautiful history, but I think we have a much more beautiful future,” Blodgett said. “I think the things that happened have been catalysts and God is using it.

“Many times we look at a celebration like this as a culmination,” the pastor added. “We’re looking at it as a pause from which we’re going to shoot forward.”

Past, present or future, the two men aren’t the only ones looking forward to the weekend festivities.

“It should be a wonderful weekend,” said Brooks, who noted that the church went through some change after the diaspora of IBM’ers in the late 1980s. “We have people coming in from Florida, Arizona among other places.”