1958 - Saint John Baptist Church - Wichita Falls, TX - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

St John Baptist Church
Organized 1905
By Rev. W.M. Massey
Rev. L.S. Arthur
Builder of Foundation
1913

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St John Baptist Church
Erected 1917
Rev. M.K. Currey Pastor
A. Byrd
R. Duckenfield
J.E. Brown Trustees
C.H. Croft
T.S. Jackson
Powell & Lasier
Contractors

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This is a very active congregation, but oddly, they have virtually no online presence beyond web-spidered directory listings and an unused Facebook page that is over a decade old. Even their service hours are elusive, not indicated on the church sign. A 2019 Texas Historical Marker out front provides some history, and two of the old sanctuary cornerstones can be found in front of the current one:

In June 1884, the Grainger & Ballow Addition was platted in an area later called the Eastside, which became the center of the African American community of Wichita Falls. In this neighborhood in November 1905, Rev. W.M. Massey, Charles and Susan Frizzell Craft, Andrew Byrd, William Johnson and Lizzie Scott Richardson organized Saint John Baptist Church, the third congregation of the Black community. Mrs. Richardson is credited for naming the church. The first service was held at Titus Chapel C.M.E. Church. The church soon moved to the Odd Fellows Hall and a building fund campaign was initiated. A small wood frame building was erected on Park Street in 1906, but unfortunately burned in June 1913 while pastor William Washington served. A brush arbor, used for worship, was erected on the same lot. Under Rev. M.K. Curry, a basement was built and by 1917 a two-story brick sanctuary was completed with the first baptistery of the Eastside area churches. A four-room house behind the church was bought as the first parsonage.

Saint John became a spiritual and social center for the community. During the devastating Great Depression of the 1930s, Rev. Moses P. Timms and six other ministers of the Eastside Ministerial Alliance sponsored the feeding of approximately two hundred people per day with meals served in the basement of Saint John. Rev. Theodore Smith was influential in building the first Black church-owned recreational community park with a concession stand in 1947. Property was purchased at 1009 Flood Street to erect a new church, dedicated in August 1958. Rev. L.D. Bell's son was the architect. In 1967, the church mortgage was paid off and a new three thousand-square-foot parsonage was built. Saint John Baptist Church, more than a century old, still remains a vital part of the Eastside community of Wichita Falls.

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