Though Paradise United Baptist was established around 1810, with the first church being built at about that time, it was originally known as the Wilmot and Upper Granville (now Paradise and Clarence) Baptist Church. It survived until about 1780, at which time it was destroyed, by what, we do not know. The present church was built to replace it in 1876.
The building stands on a tall brick foundation, which is the basement. Though brick foundations were not terribly uncommon by 1876, neither were they terribly common in Nova Scotia at that time, rubblestone or granite blocks being more the norm. As a result we might assume that the church was originally built without a basement.
Viewed from the front, Paradise United Baptist is perfectly symmetrical save for one quite noticeable anomaly, that being the lack of a belfry and steeple on the left (west), tower to match those of the right (east) tower. A guess would be that they were once there, lost to a howling gale sometime in the dim and distant past.
, finding any historical information for the church proved time consuming. After several hours of searching, we came across the following passage, from an EBook, digitised from
CHURCH RECORDS
The Baptist Church, practically the only religious body in the community with the exception of a few adherents of the Church of England, was founded about 1810, and originally known as the Wilmot and Upper Granville (now Paradise and Clarence) Baptist Church. The first seventeen years of records have been lost. In the earliest period, fellowship was withdrawn from sixteen persons for not attending to their privileges—rather stiff discipline, but perhaps beneficial. The list of pastors of this church from its organization in 1810 to 1936 is as follows:
Rev. Thomas Ainsley, 1810-1832.
Rev. Nathanael Vidito, 1832-1872.
Rev. Atwood Cahoon, M.A., (D.D.), 1872-1876.
Rev. J. A. Durkee, 1876-1877.
Rev. John Brown, 1877-1879.
Rev. J. T. Eaton, 1879-1884.
Rev. David Price, 1885-1887.
Rev. G. F. Mainwaring, 1887-1890.
Rev. R. B. Finley, 1890-1896.
Rev. E. I,. Steeves, 1897-1903.
Rev. H. H. Saunders, M.A., 1903-1909.
Rev. I.. F. Wallace, A.B., 1910-1912.
Rev. A. NI. MacNintch, 1912-1914.
Rev. J. D. MacI,eod, A.B., 1914-1916.
Rev. I. A. Corbett, A.B., B.D., 1916-1920.
Rev. W. S. Smith, A.B., 1921-1926.
Rev. H. Barber, 1926- [sometime after 1936]
The first church on the present site was destroyed after 1870, and the present building erected during the pastorate of Rev. A. Cahoon (1876). The structure has stood the storms to the present date, and the spire is rather pleasing to artists, who on occasion view the landscape.
The auditorium contains three tablets erected to the memory of the pastors, 1810-1936, to the soldiers who died during the great war (their names recorded in records of gravestones), and a tablet in memory of:
Joseph Chipman Morse, 1845-1921.
Almira Phinney Morse, 1850-1920.
Vernon C. Morse, M.D. (Harvard Medical School), 1877-1924.
Harry H. Morse, 1883-1918.
Ewart G. Morse, 1892-1935.
Quando corpus morietur fac ut animae
donetur Paradisi gloria
From Local history of Paradise