History on the Strip: The 24 who started Simpsonville’s first brick church

Next Wednesday, while the Golden Strip honors its veterans, one of Simpsonville’s oldest institutions will quietly mark a birthday of its own. On Sunday, Nov. 11, 1888, twenty-four people formally organized Simpsonville Baptist Church. Today it’s First Baptist Simpsonville, and it is 138 years old.

From stage stop to railroad town

Long before Simpsonville had a downtown, it had a crossroads. Starting in the 1820s, Thomas Goldsmith ran a stagecoach stop on the Old Stage Road between Laurens and Greenville. It sat near the spot where that road crossed an old Cherokee trail, later known as Georgia Road. In 1838 a Laurens County farmer named Peter Simpson set up a blacksmith shop there. A general store soon followed, along with a post office given a fittingly modest name: Plain. As word of Simpson’s work spread, people started calling the crossroads Simpsonville.

The railroad changed everything. In 1885–86 the Greenville & Laurens Railroad finished its line through town, and Main Street was laid out parallel to the tracks. Merchant Sidney J. Wilson surveyed lots and began selling them, and in 1886 the Plain post office officially became Simpsonville. A busy rail stop was taking shape, and its people were starting to build the things that make a place a hometown.

A Sunday school class becomes a church

It began small. On April 1, 1887, B.M. Moore organized a Sunday school class in a little frame schoolhouse. Nineteen months later the group incorporated as a church with 24 members. Its first pastor was the Rev. F.H. Martin.

Their first building was a simple frame church built around 1889. It stood just south of where the present sanctuary stands today. Preaching came only once a month, which was typical for young country congregations of that era.

The church with beautiful windows

Simpsonville incorporated as a town on Aug. 13, 1901. By 1912 the congregation had outgrown its wooden building. Under the Rev. E.C. Watson, a building committee was elected: W.D. Fowler, B.W. Burdett, S.T. Moore, F.M. Todd, F.D. Hunter and J.M. Richardson. They hired Spartanburg architect Luther D. Proffitt and Greenville builder E.J. Gibson.

Ground was broken on April 15, 1913, and the cornerstone was laid that September. On May 15, 1914, the congregation held its first regular service in a red-brick sanctuary designed mostly in the Romanesque Revival style, with touches of Moorish and Gothic design. The total cost, furnishings included, was $19,207.79. It was said to be the first brick church ever built in Simpsonville.

Look up as you pass, and you’ll notice that the “twin” towers aren’t twins. The south tower stands a full story taller and still serves as the bell tower. The real showpieces are inside: two leaded stained-glass windows, each about 17 feet tall. One shows Christ knocking at the door and the other shows the lost sheep, scenes believed to be based on the work of English painter William Holman Hunt. Those windows earned the church its local nickname, “The Friendly Church With Beautiful Windows.”

The congregation took the name First Baptist Church of Simpsonville in 1922. The 1914 sanctuary, now the chapel, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Oct. 13, 1992. The church has grown well beyond it since then, opening a 1,500-seat worship center in 2008, but the old chapel is still in use.

Worth a second look

The next time you’re downtown, walk over to 106 Church Street. The trains, the stagecoaches and the blacksmith’s forge are long gone. The building that twenty-four neighbors set in motion in 1888 is still there, with its windows still catching the light.

photo credit:The Baptist Courier