On the corner of Fifth Street and Webster Avenue sits an ornate church that, to the untrained eye, looks somewhat out of place in downtown Waco. Just a few blocks from Baylor University and even closer to the Magnolia Silos, Waco visitors may wonder what this beautiful church is doing here. But the truth is, First Baptist Church Waco was here long before many of the downtown sites, and its history is deeply intertwined with Baylor’s.
Waco History reports First Baptist Church Waco was established on May 31, 1851. It was housed originally in a log cabin shared with a Methodist church at the corner of Second Street and Jackson Avenue, according to the church’s history account. The first pastor of the congregation was Rev. Noah T. Byers, who was paid $75 a year for the job. He later resigned to continue his missionary work, preaching to enslaved people in frontier villages and launching a desegregated ordination program.
The church’s second pastor constructed a new church building blocks away which would host Trinity River High School — an early predecessor to Waco University, which would merge with Baylor University. University President Rufus Burleson, at that point president of Waco University, also pastored First Baptist and served as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War.
Read more: The School That Saved Baylor: Legacies of Waco University
Tragedy struck in 1877 when the building was destroyed by a fire. New construction began immediately, building the new-Byzantine structure at Fifth Street and Webster Avenue familiar to Waco today. By that point, the church was under the leadership of Baylor legend B. H. Carroll. He implemented many changes in the congregation, perhaps most notably, allowing women to serve as deacons. In his entire time as pastor, he only ever missed one Sunday.
After his departure, another Baylor giant took over the pulpit at First Baptist — Dr. Joseph Martin Dawson. During his pastorship, Dawson focused on getting the church’s finances back on track and on giving more attention to social issues. He was passionate about church-state separation, racial justice, and erasing gender prejudice.
