After a second organization in 1833, the congregation was known as Front Street Baptist Church; the church building was located in a house at Front and Ann Streets on Baptist Hill. The house still stands today and serves as the residence for one of the members of First Baptist Church. Lots for the present church building at Fifth and Market Streets were purchased in 1858. Subscriptions for the building were requested in the name of First Baptist Church. Construction of the church began in 1860; the Civil War delayed completion, and the building was not dedicated until 1870.

First Baptist Church was designed by Samuel Sloan, an architect from Philadelphia who also designed First Baptist Church in Raleigh. Both buildings were modeled after Fredericksburg Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Our church is an example of early English Gothic architecture, with pointed arches and two narrow spires. The spires, originally made of heart pine, were joined with wooden dowels; the taller spire rises 197 feet. The buttress at the base of the taller tower is 46 inches wide. In spite of many hurricanes and lesser wind storms that have struck the city, the tall spire withstood winds as great as those of Hurricane Helene in 1958 which reached 135 miles per hour. However, winds from Hurricane Fran in 1996 caused the steeple to be blown from its original support structure. The congregation immediately voted to rebuild the steeple to its original height and look. Today, the steeple looks as it did when it was originally built.

The church foundation holds tons of ship ballast discarded from sailing vessels that once crowded the Cape Fear River. The church appointed a committee in 1859 to collect the stones and to have them hauled to the building site. A portion of the exposed ballast rock foundation can be seen in the basement of the Education wing.

The bell in the tower weighs 2,106 pounds; the tongue weighs 47 pounds. This bell was recast from an older bell and was enlarged. Some of the metal in the bell is probably over 200 years old.

The original estimate for erecting the church was $20,592.00, but the actual cost was five or six times higher. Contributions for constructing the church came primarily from the Wilmington congregation, some in the form of materials and labor. Donations were also sought from around North Carolina and even from New England.

The sanctuary – balcony and lower floor – seats approximately 700 people; for a hundred years it was the largest auditorium in the city. The ridge line of the ceiling in the sanctuary is five stories high. Sunday School was originally held in the balcony before the Education wing was added in 1922.

Oil lamps first lighted the sanctuary; these were followed by gas lights and then electricity.

The present “art windows” were installed in 1903.

An ingenious air conditioning system was built into the sanctuary. The rosettes in the ceiling connected to an air space above them and were hinged so that they could be raised and lowered by ropes and pulleys. Some of the rosettes have been replaced by modern air conditioner diffusers.

The pews of the lower level of the sanctuary, like the grille work on the front of the balcony, are handmade. They originally cost $3.00 each. The backs and ends of the pews are paneled with curly pine, the ends in Gothic panels. Original kneeling benches for parishioners who chose to pray in the pews are on display in the Archives Room located on the second floor of the WLI Building.

At one time, the church was financed by renting pews. Fees were from $5.00 to $500.00 per year and were based on location and size of the pew. The renter had exclusive use of his pew for morning worship, prayer meetings, revivals and business meetings. The pews are still divided into two sections and are numbered.

The Civil War era was significant in the history of First Baptist Church. Arches over the windows were being turned the day South Carolina seceded, and windows on the towers were being turned the day Fort Sumter was bombarded. During the war, many blockade runners penetrated the Union blockade to dock in Wilmington. In July 1862, one such ship, the “Kate”, sailed up the river, unloaded her cargo and sped away. She also left behind her the beginnings of a yellow fever epidemic. In a short time, hundreds of people were sick and hundreds died. Residents who could fled the city. The ministers of First Baptist Church, St. James Episcopal Church and St. Mary’s Catholic Church refused to leave. Dr. John Lamb Prichard, pastor of the church, paid the price with his own life.

Scars left by the Union rifle balls can be seen outside the sanctuary. A silver spur lost by a Union soldier was found when excavations were made for the Education Building in 1922.

The physical facilities of the church were first expanded in the late 1800s when a Lecture Room was added. In 1922, the Sunday School building was dedicated; and in the mid 1970s, the Activities Center at the corner of Canterbury Road and Independence Boulevard was completed. Since then the Church has acquired the house directly behind the Education Building. The house is called the “Sidbury House” after Dr. J. Burean Sidbury, a pediatrician who lived here and practiced medicine from the house before opening the Wilmington Babies Hospital near Wrightsville Beach. The original owner of the house, Mr. John J. Connally, was the gentleman who sold First Baptist Church members the lot that the church stands on today. The Sidbury House currently serves as Sunday School space.

In 1992 a slight renovation was made to the pulpit and chancel area of the sanctuary. At this time, the chancel and organ were lowered from the balcony gallery to the pulpit level and the baptistry was moved from behind the pulpit to above the chancel. Also, the pulpit was moved out from directly under the arch in order for the minister to be closer to the congregation and to make room for the expanded chancel.

In 1997, the church once again expanded its facility with the purchase of the Wilmington Light Infantry/Taylor House (WLI), which is located beside the sanctuary. This was done to provide additional space for the church’s ever-growing Sunday School ministry. The bottom floor of the WLI currently serves as the administrative offices of the church, and the second floor houses additional Sunday School space and the Archives Room.

Music has been an important part of worship in First Baptist Church. As early as 1844, a hymnbook was adopted and a “gallery” was approved for singers. Not until 1936 was a paid quartet replaced by a volunteer choir. The first Minister of Music was hired in 1942. A power-driven pipe organ installed in the 1890s was one of the first in eastern North Carolina. The organ in the sanctuary today is one of the finest instruments in the state: it has four keyboards and 2,793 pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to 32 feet in length.

First Baptist Church is known to have had 26 ministers in its 195 years, although records on ministers from 1808 to 1833 are sketchy. Our church has been instrumental in organizing nine other churches. In 1845, First Baptist Church was represented at the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention; in 1897 the SBC met in Wilmington. The Baptist State Convention was formed before the SBC; and it, too, met here in 1867 and 1886.

First Baptist Church has a long and illustrious history of providing ministry to people in the Wilmington area and around the world. Today’s congregation of over 1400 resident members is proud of its past and has a hope for many more years of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world around us.

Revised April, 2003