While Alma Baptist Church was established in 1859, this edifice wasn't built until 1899, another forty years hence. The
Village of Alma, a little lobster and scallop fishing seaport, has stood for much longer on the New Brunswick shore of the Bay of Fundy, home of the
World's Highest Tides.
While the church presents an asymmetrical profile from the street, it is actually symmetrical about the bell tower, an ell with the tower tucked into the inside of the ell. Eschewing Gothic for a more contemporary (read Victorian) architectural style, the architect chose gabled windows for the church, each with a thin hood. At each gable peak, including those of the cross gabled belfry roof, is a sawn decorative panel with intricate scrollwork. The belfry itself has gabled vent openings all around, some now missing the off vent slat. atop its roos trands a tall, thin wood shingle clad spire sporting a ball finial, from which emanates the shaft of a weathervane.
The symmetry of the tower continues with its entries, one in each of the exposed sides, again with a gabled transom. The tower actually has four distinct sections: the bottom section ends at the sanctuary's eaves, with the sloping roof wrapping around it; the second section has gabled windows in two sides and ends at the belfry bottom with a wraparound eave; the third section is the belfry while the fourth is the spire. In the sanctuary's gable peaks, behind the decorative panels, is a section of decorative diamond and truncated scalloped shingles atop a moulding with a gable shape or motif.
While there is an Alma Baptist Cemetery it is not at the church, but about 500 feet north of the church on Scenic Drive.