Bethel Baptist Church

The plaque says the congregation now worships elsewhere; the leaving took decades. As Fourth Ward declined, Rev. W. H. Dudley bought five acres in Fifth Ward about 1964 and alternated services there, but some members refused to move, and in 1967 he formed New Bethel Baptist at the new site. His successor's push to sell this building split the church again, and by 1997 fewer than a hundred members remained. They left the unsound building that year. After the 2005 fire the city bought the shell in 2009, and a park inside the standing walls was completed in 2013.

What the plaque says

Bethel Baptist Church IN 1890-91, REV. JACK YATES AND A GROUP OF WORSHIPPERS LEFT ANTIOCH BAPTIST CHURCH OVER A DISAGREEMENT ABOUT RENOVATION FUNDING. THEY NAMED THEIR NEW CONGREGATION BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, REFERRING TO "BETH-EL" MEANING A "CENTER" NEAR AN INDIVIDUAL'S HEART CALLED THE "HOUSE OF GOD". IN OCTOBER 1891, THE CONGREGATION PURCHASED A LOT ON ANDREWS AT CROSBY UPON WHICH A SIMPLE BUILDING WAS SOON ERECTED. THE CHURCH WAS BLOWN DOWN IN THE 1900 STORM AND REBUILT WITH SALVAGEABLE MATERIAL FROM THE WRECKAGE. THE TWO LONGEST-SERVING PASTORS, REV. JAMES R. BURDETT (1917-1946) AND REV. W. H. DUDLEY (1948-1970), OVERSAW THE CONSTRUCTION OF A GOTHIC REVIVAL INFLUENCED STRUCTURE. THE FIRST PHASE, A ONE-STORY BUILDING, WAS DESIGNED BY JOHN L. BLOUNT IN 1923. THE CHURCH WAS EXPANDED TO THREE STORIES BY ARCHITECT JAMES M. THOMAS IN 1949-50. THE INTERIOR WAS DESTROYED BY A FIRE ON JANUARY 24, 2005, BUT THE EXTERIOR REMAINED. BETHEL'S DESIGN, WITH ITS AT-GRADE ENTRANCE AND OVERSIZED ARCHED ENTRY WITH A MODERN MINIMAL FAÇADE EMBELLISHMENT, IS UNUSUAL AND REPRESENTS ITS PROGRESSIVE AND AFFLUENT CONGREGATION. BETHEL WAS SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS THE "SILK STOCKING" CHURCH BECAUSE OF ITS WELL-TO-DO MEMBERS INCLUDING DR. B. J. COVINGTON, CO-FOUNDER OF THE HOUSTON NEGRO HOSPITAL; J. H. HARMON, DRY GOODS MERCHANT; ELDRIDGE "BUD" JACKSON, FUNERAL HOME OWNER; ANDERSON LACEY, INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN VIOLINIST; CLIFTON F. RICHARDSON, SR., EDITOR AND FOUNDER OF THE HOUSTON INFORMER AND HOUSTON DEFENDER; AND RUTHERFORD B. H. YATES, SR., PRINTER AND EDUCATOR. BETHEL WAS ONE OF THE EARLIEST CONGREGATIONS IN FREEDMEN'S TOWN. ALTHOUGH THE BETHEL CONGREGATION NOW WORSHIPS IN ANOTHER COMMUNITY, IT HAS MAINTAINED A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE RESIDENTS OF FOURTH WARD SINCE ITS FOUNDING. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 0.4 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 1.4 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Emancipation Park — 1.5 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Rothko Chapel — 1.7 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Origins of Freedman's Town — steps away
• Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Harvey Homan — steps away
• William S. Stilwell — 0.2 mi