Second Baptist Church

About this property

Second Baptist Church is a historic church building in the village of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, United States. Constructed in the mid-19th century, it is the oldest church in the village, and it has been named a historic site. Mechanicsburg was platted in 1814, and the town grew rapidly in wealth and population. By 1840, the value of real property in the village had surpassed ten thousand dollars, and another forty years saw its value pass one-third of a million dollars. The population likewise grew from 99 in 1830 to 258 in 1840, 682 in 1850, and 1,522 in 1880. From its early years, Mechanicsburg was a multi-racial community; one black resident was recorded in the 1830, and after growing gradually to 53 by 1870, the black population jumped to 209 in 1880. By the 1880s, Mechanicsburg's black population was large enough to support two separate churches: a Baptist congregation and a congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Formed in November 1872 with a charter membership of eight, only the Baptist congregation survives of the two; it uses the name "Second Baptist Church", as a white Baptist congregation had been founded in 1840. In 1917, the membership of the congregation and of its Sunday school were recorded as seventy and fifty respectively; in its first forty-five years, the congregation was served by fourteen pastors. One of the ministers, Elmer Curry, founded the Curry Normal and Industrial Institute at the church, modelling it after the Tuskegee Institute, but after a period of operating in Mechanicsburg, the school relocated to Urbana. The first religious organization anywhere in Goshen Township was formed by Methodist missionaries. Although the Mechanicsburg Methodist Episcopal Church's membership was small in the earliest years, it grew rapidly as a result of numerous revival meetings, which saw many people converted to Christianity under the preaching of men such as pioneer bishop Francis Asbury. Between 1814 and 1839, they occupied three small church buildings in Mechanicsburg, and growth prompted them to erect a larger brick structure in 1858; they chose a lot that had been used as the village's first cemetery until another cemetery was opened and the bodies were moved to the new location. As the membership approached four hundred by the late 1870s, a thorough renovation project was completed. Nevertheless, growth continued, and an even larger church building was constructed in 1904 several blocks north of the previous one. Accordingly, the congregation sold the old brick edifice to the Second Baptist Church for $2,850, which continued to improve the structure; in 1917, a local author stated that "It is nicely decorated on the interior and is fitted with electric lights." Historically, the church boasted a peaked belfry above its entrance. This structure was cut down in 1936 following a fire at the Culbertson Buggy Works, next door to the church, which was catastrophic enough that the tower was damaged. The church's original bell was removed as a result of the fire and placed in the village school, although in return the smaller school bell was given to the church.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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