St. Paul Baptist Church

The plaque lists pastors; the National Register describes the building. St. Paul's Baptist Church at 454 2nd Street NE was listed on October 26, 1988, as part of the Historic Resources of Paris group, for its Romanesque architecture, with 1921 as its significant year and no known architect. A. W. Neville wrote in 1937 that after burning the courthouse the 1916 fire ran down North Main to Cherry and Booth streets, then into what he called the "Negro quarter," leaving a small island of cheap houses unburned. The plaque places the church at East Booth Street.

What the plaque says

St. Paul Baptist Church Organized 1867; one of founding churches (1872), Zion District Baptist Association. Original pastor, the Rev. Elisha Barnes (1811-95), served 20 years, led congregation to build (about 1876) its first church. The Rev. C. N. Hampton, pastor 1895-1920, saw a brick edifice erected, lost in 1916 Paris fire. Present church was finished under the Rev. J. H. Harris. Other pastors: W. M. Conner, L. M. Luke, C. B. Martin, S. A. Tillman, J. R. Miner, L. V. Bolton, J. A. Brown, M. J. Stewart, B. S. Peoples, T. J. Houston, L. K. Kimbrough, E. Rhodes, V. C. L. Coleman, J. E. Coby, S. K. Bizzell, H. M. McCown, L. H. Brown, W. E. Bradford, and W. S. Wright. Incise on back of marker: Church officers, 1973: W. M. Wortham, chairman, Board of Deacons; L. C. Pruitt, chairman of trustees; Ralph Rodgers, financial secretary, Jesse L. Mathis, treasurer; Mrs. Sweet M. Ferguson, clerk. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 0.8 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 1.5 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 2.5 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 23 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Lamar County, C. S. A. — 0.3 mi
• Paris Public Schools — 0.3 mi
• Paris — 0.3 mi
• First United Methodist Church of Paris — 0.4 mi