The Community Invited to Celebrate Reopening of Historic First Baptist

Historic First Baptist Church, 421 South First Street, Pacific.  _____________________________________________________________________________________

By Pauline Masson –

At 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 19, Historic First Baptist Church will welcome the community to celebrate the restoration that took seven years.

The great flood of 1915 inundated the entire downtown area of Pacific, filling the sanctuary of Historic First Baptist. The area and the church would flood again in 1947, 1982, 1985, 1993, 2008, 2015 and 2017.

After the 2017 flood, the small congregation — only recently completed restoration of the church from the 2015 flood — thought of giving up, demolishing the damaged church and erecting a plaque that showed it once stood there.

Norbert Gildehaus, Bob Masson and Brad Reed thought the community would want to save the historic landmark. They formed a committee to preserve the small Black church on South First Street since 1874 and had been destroyed by flood for at least eight times.

They appealed to the community to help preserve the 150 year old structure for future generations.

Benton Kelley, local concrete contractor and veteran at elevating structures above the flood plain volunteeed to serve as project manager to restore the historic church and raise it out of harms way,

The full committee included Alderman Carol Johnson, Mike Bagwell, George Hinkle Jr., Jerry Holloway, Shavar Ingram, Danny “Turtle”Johnson, Cody Kelley, the late Jim and late Bill McHugh, Steve Myers, Lloyed Pruitt, Sue Reed, and Sister Frances Moury Regis.

Mr. Kelley said the committee would need to raise $21,000 to elevate the building above the flood plain and set it on a new foundation.

Historic First Baptist Renewed Interior. __________________________________________________________________

Under the direction of Mr. Kelley, Mr. Gildehaus, Mr.Masson and Mr. Reed – in a seven-year renovation and fundraising effort – thanks to a community that openedi ts coffers, $265,000 was put into the complete restoration of the interior of the small sanctuary.

Renovation included new exterior siding, new drywall, new electrical wiring, new plumbing, new heating and air conditioning, new gas lines, new flooring and carpeting, dropped ceiling, elevated entries, and a parking lot.  All of it derived from community donations.

One donor wanted stained glass windows in the historic church and donated funds to cut narrow windows on each side of the front door. Stained glass panels with lights behind will set behind the glass.

The city of Pacific donated dumpsters to remove flood debris and destroyed furniture and worked with Mr. Kelley through each stage of the restoration to assure compliance with city codes and prepare the building for an occupancy permit.

‘We were pretty sure the community would help out,” Mr.Gildehaus said. “But what happened was way more than we expected.”

Five area churches – Gray Summit Baptist Church, Mission Community Church, Pacific Presbyterian Church, Rock Family Church, and Rose Hill Missionary Church donated.

Seven civic groups – The Chamber of Commerce, Eagle Aerie, Lions Club, Pacific Jaycees, Pacific History Committee, Pacific Partnership and Tri-County Senior Center all pitched in.

Two political candidates donated excess campaign funds – Herb Adams and Cody Kelley.

Bikers who attended the huge funeral crowd of favorite son Danny “Turtle”Johnson passed the hat.

Twenty-four businesses sent checks – Gildehaus Comfort Systems, Vinyl Solutions, NettieSuze, Moon Woodworking, Pigg’s Pets, Reed Insurance, Bunch Construction, BigFoot4x4, Nautical Vacation Rentals, D’Angelos, Meadows Closet and Bath, Innovative Building Concepts, Brown Jerry’s, Big G Tires, Show Me Auto Body, Trixie’s Bar, Krausch Construction, AXE Sporting Arms, FN River Properties, Rags Catering, Ed’s Repair, Beth Bowers Agency, and Harris Troesser Construction.

Eighty individual donors wrote checks. Cash donations were handed to committee members at every public event.

The community also turned out for a series of barbecues, poker runs, pool tournaments and trivia nights to benefit the restoration project. Mayor Steve Myers and his wife Lori ran a shuttle service to two BigFoot4x4 Open Houses and donations – supplemented by donations from Big Foot – went to the Historic First Baptist restoration project.

Norbert Gildehaus, Bob Masson, Brad Reed and Benton Kelley s managed the project as donations came in allowing stages of the project to be completed.    _______________________________________________________________________

“The total amount that went into the building was probably more than we recorded,” Mr. Gildehaus said. “Sometime people – skilled tradesmen – just showed up and worked for a day or two and didn’t even leave their names. I mean, this was a labor of love.”

The question was often raised whether the project was a restoration project or  preservation project. Mr. Gildehaus always insisted that even though the damaged structure was restored, the goal for the religious niche the church occupied in the city was to preserve the historic structure for future congregations.

“This building should last for another hundred years,” he said.

After the loss of Pastor James Pekins in 2020, the Rev. Robert L. Stevenson Jr accepted pastorship of the church and congregation.

On Sunday October.19, the public is invited to an open house to celebrate the restored church and the community that came together to preserve an historic treasure

Deacon Loyed Pruitt and Pastor Robert L. Stevenson will welcome the community to the renovated church

Author: paulinemasson

Pauline Masson, editor/publisher. View all posts by paulinemasson