First Baptist Church of Midland

The church weathered Midland's Depression. When demand for oil fell and new East Texas fields glutted the market, many of the city's oil businesses folded, and by 1932 a third of Midland's workers were unemployed. Citizens organized the Midland Community Welfare Association to hand out food and clothing, and the city council asked the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for help. Recovery began in the mid-1930s, after the Railroad Commission began regulating production and Washington put a tariff on foreign oil. As new fields opened, Midland grew to 9,325 people by 1940.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Midland The First Baptist Church of Midland began serving the city shortly after Midland's founding in 1885. That year, Baptists from Pecos, Big Spring and Midland agreed to hire the Rev. S.B. Callaway to serve the three congregations. Under his leadership, a group organized this church in 1886, erecting a building shortly afterwards. Over the years, the church expanded and moved twice to accommodate growing membership. During the years following World War II, church growth mirrored Midland's impressive city development due to the region's expanding petroleum industry. Through all this time, the church has been a spiritual and community leader, a position it continues to hold today. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bush Family Home State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  The small 1939 frame house on West Ohio Avenue where George and Barbara Bush raised their young family in Midland's 1950s oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site.
• Museum of the Southwest — 0.6 mi
  Midland's art and science museum in the 1937 house of oilman Fred Turner and his wife Juliette, with added galleries, a children's museum and a planetarium on the grounds.
• Permian Basin Petroleum Museum — 2.1 mi
  Midland's museum of the oil basin it sits on, from a restored diorama of the Permian reef to a 40-acre yard of drilling rigs and Jim Hall's Chaparral race cars.
• Midland Army Air Field Museum — 7.8 mi
  A hangar museum at Midland's airport, run by Commemorative Air Force volunteers, telling how a 1927 grass field became the bombardier college that graduated 6,627 officers in World War II.

More markers nearby

• George Bush Family Home — 0.5 mi
• First Christian Church of Midland — 0.6 mi
• Midland Christian College — 0.9 mi
• Midland National Bank — 1.2 mi