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Civil WarReconstruction & Gilded Age

Site of Original Building_First Baptist Church

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Organized Jan. 20, 1861, by Missionary Pastor, the Rev. John H. Thurmond. A two-story, 40' x 60' church of white limestone built 1872 to 1877 was the first permanent home. The parsonage adjoined. Services held here until 1905, when church moved to site at 4th and Taylor. (1967)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

First Baptist Church of San Antonio was organized in January 1861 by a missionary pastor, the Rev. John H. Thurmond, on the eve of the Civil War. The congregation worshipped in temporary quarters until it raised its first permanent home — a two-story, 40-by-60-foot white limestone church built from 1872 to 1877, with a parsonage alongside. Services continued at this site until 1905, when the growing church relocated to Fourth and Taylor.

Why it matters

The marker records the founding of an enduring congregation in a fast-growing frontier city, part of the wave of institution-building that gave mid-19th-century San Antonio its permanent civic and religious life.

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  • · John H. Thurmond

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