Jethro First Baptist Church

Among the oldest of the city’s surviving religious buildings is the Jethro First Baptist Church. The Jethro First Baptist congregation was founded as a small prayer group by early black settlers. The first church building was constructed on what is now Huntington Road in 1874. In the plat of Crescent City, a number of lots in the northwest section of the town were set aside for black residents. As the number of black settlers grew, there was a demand for a more centrally located house of worship. In 1877 the small one-room building was floated across Lake Stella and positioned at its present site at 101 Cedar Street. The Jethro First Baptist Congregation was formally organized in 1880. The church was later enlarged and remodeled into its present configuration. Its important historical associations with Crescent City’s ethnic history make it eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.