Winfree Baptist Church

The church marked its hundredth year in August 2015 with a homecoming. The Record reported a centennial program on Saturday, August 29, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the sanctuary, with snacks, history, honors for members and former members and the unveiling of a historical marker, then dinner on the grounds after Sunday worship, with about 300 expected. Pastor Keith Royal was marking his 20th anniversary with the church that July. A pumpkin patch, started in 2006, raises money for missions.

What the plaque says

Winfree Baptist Church The Winfree community originated in 1831 as a ranch of the early Texas settler Abraham Winfree. By 1914, the area had grown in population and the scattered rural churches were not adequate for the farming families of the area. After purchasing the deed to part of the land, community leaders established Burton Baptist Church in August 1915. It was named for Reverend F.A. Burton who was its first pastor. The church began with 23 members. Reverend Marion Stephenson served as pastor a year later. By 1920 the congregation grew to 86 members and also gained two deacons. In 1923 a larger church building was constructed nearby to replace the old one, and it was renamed Winfree Baptist Church. The community grew and by 1936 a women's missionary society was established by the church. By 1940 a parsonage was built, then rebuilt as a modernized brick building ten years later. By 1959, the congregation decided that a new church on new land needed to be built to accommodate the continued growth. A deed of 5.9 acres was bought by the church from Ivy Winfree Kimball. The new site, located just one mile south of the old site, was on land that Abraham Winfree once owned in 1831. In the following years, the church saw the construction of an educational building, which was then rebuilt after a fire in 1980. The church built a new auditorium and other facilities over the years. Since 1915, the church has had 25 pastors and 23 deacons. The congregation has exceeded 1,000 members, and has funded the foundation of other churches and missionary work beyond Orange County, as far as Mexico and Southeast Asia. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 4.9 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.
• Stark Museum of Art — 5.5 mi
  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.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 15 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 — 16 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

• Orangefield — 2.4 mi
• Madison Lodge No. 126, A. F. & A. M. — 3.2 mi
• Site of World War II P. O. W. Camp — 3.4 mi
• First Baptist Church of West Orange — 4.4 mi