Broadway Baptist Church of Ft. Worth

The sanctuary on Broadway is the fourth church building on this ground. Fort Worth architects Hedrick and Stanley designed the Gothic Revival building that was completed in 1952. Its steeple rises 162 feet above the main entry door and shows on the skyline from many parts of the city. Education buildings went up to the south in 1922 and 1940, and a 1961 expansion brought the church to a full city block. The earlier brick building of 1906 was a casualty of the Great South Side Fire of 1909, which is why the 1910 replacement preceded this one.

What the plaque says

Broadway Baptist Church of Ft. Worth On December 31, 1882, six men and three women met to organize this congregation. They called the Rev. John Smith Gillispie as their first Pastor. The name South Side Baptist Church was adopted January 14, 1883, at worship services held in a rented hall at 15th and Houston Street. In 1886 the fellowship erected a frame church building on the southwest corner of Broadway and St. Louis Avenue. Four years later the congregational name was changed to Broadway Baptist Church. As the church grew, larger facilities were needed. In 1906 a brick structure replaced the original building. On April 3, 1909, a devastating fire swept Fort Worth's South Side, destroying over 200 structures, including the church building, parsonage, and the homes of 22 member families. Rebuilding started immediately, and a new church structure was completed in 1910. The church complex expanded with the addition of educational facilities. A new sanctuary was begun in 1949 and completed by Easter Sunday in 1952. The membership of Broadway Baptist Church has grown to over 2,500 in its centennial year. At least seven other Baptist churches have been established through the efforts of this congregation. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 1.2 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 2.2 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 2.4 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 3.5 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• Beth-el Congregation — steps away
• Texas Spring Palace — 0.4 mi
• Hell's Half Acre — 0.5 mi
• St. Andrews United Methodist Church of Fort Worth — 0.6 mi