First Baptist Church of El Paso
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first meeting of Baptists in El Paso was held on August 26, 1882, at the home of Maj. and Mrs. W. F. Fewel, under the leadership of the Rev. George Baines, Jr. One week later he directed the formation of this congregation, which was chartered with 22 members. The first sanctuary, constructed in 1885 at Magoffin and San Antonio, served until 1906 when new facilities were occupied at Magoffin and Virginia. In 1922 First Baptist merged with Central Baptist Church and moved to this location. Through its missions, First Baptist Church has started 12 other churches in El Paso and Juarez. 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In August 1882 a handful of Baptists first gathered in a private El Paso home under the Rev. George Baines, Jr., chartering this congregation a week later with just 22 members. Their first sanctuary went up in 1885 as the border town was taking shape, and a 1922 merger with Central Baptist brought the church to this site. Over the years its missions seeded a dozen more churches on both sides of the Rio Grande.
Why it matters
The congregation's growth mirrors the rapid rise of El Paso as a rail-era border city, where American religious life spread outward into the borderlands and northern Mexico.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. George Baines, Jr.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Christian Church of El Paso
El Paso, TX
In the booming border town of 1880s El Paso, a Pennsylvania blacksmith named Philip Miner gathered thirteen charter members to found this Disciples of Christ congregation, refusing any pay for his preaching. Since coming to Texas in 1849 he had devoted himself to planting churches and public schools, and he continued that work on the far western frontier. From rented rooms in south El Paso the fellowship built successive sanctuaries and helped seed other congregations as the desert city grew.
San Jacinto Plaza
El Paso, TX
This downtown El Paso square has watched the crossroads of the Southwest pass by since Spanish colonial times. When a group of buyers purchased and platted the townsite in 1857, they set aside this public plot and later donated it to the incorporated city — a shady resting place that saw ox carts, covered wagons, Jefferson Davis's experimental Camel Corps, stagecoaches, and the first railroad whistles. In 1902 the city fathers permanently named it San Jacinto Plaza.
Site of the First Church Building in El Paso
El Paso, TX
On January 29, 1882, the congregation of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, South, first gathered in a new frame sanctuary with arched windows and a 40-foot bell tower — the first church building erected in the young city of El Paso. Built under the Rev. John R. Carter, it beat out rival congregations for the honor. The church later raised a second sanctuary here before relocating in 1906.
El Camino Real (The King's Highway)
El Paso, TX
El Camino Real, the 'King's Highway,' was the great royal road linking Mexico City to the far northern Kingdom of New Mexico across the vast Spanish empire. From 1581 onward, conquistadors, priests, merchants, and settlers passed this way, their ox-carts and mule-trains carrying the traffic of a new realm. For centuries the road was the artery of Spanish colonial life in the Southwest.