First Baptist Church of Orange

A Record history of the congregation names W. H. Eddleman as first pastor and Dr. Cooper Waters as pastor from 1949 to 1980. It records the church's instruments and its storms. An Estey pipe organ arrived in 1921 and a Schantz organ from Orrville, Ohio, in 1972. Katrina evacuees were housed in the gym in 2005. After Hurricane Ike, members met at the Little Cypress-Mauriceville campus from September 21, 2008, until services returned to the Green Avenue site in June 2009, in the Family Life Center.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Orange In 1879 the Rev. Andrew Peddy helped organize this congregation with 18 charter members. They met in the frame Orange County courthouse and were served for a time by missionary preachers. Sarah A. Finch and Anna and L. L. Bettis deeded a lot in this block to the congregation in 1883. The following year a 40' X 60' meetinghouse was erected. In 1898, during the ministry of the Rev. J. T. Stanton, the congregation adopted the name "Green Avenue Baptist Church". This membership merged in 1909 with the eighth street baptist church to become "The first Baptist Church of Orange". Under the leadership of the Rev. J. Stuart Pearce, more land was acquired in 1913 and this brick sanctuary was in use by 1915. J. G. McMullen gave additional property for a new education building in 1939. As the congregation grew under the pastorate of Dr. Cooper Waters, additional land was purchased, and a second education building was constructed in 1952. The Viola McCorquodale building and fellowship hall were erected in 1958. This fellowship has helped establish the following Baptist churches: Cove, Little Cypress, Brownwood, Riverside, and Maplecrest. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — steps away
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.1 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Orange — steps away
• Henry Jacob Lutcher Stark — steps away
• The City of Orange — steps away
• Homesite of Dr. Edgar William Brown — steps away