The Primera Baptist Church
at 306 Paul C. Bell Street

 

"Llenaré Esta Casa Con Gloria" reads the inscription on the pediment of the Primera Baptist Church: "I shall fill this house with glory." These words, from the Old Testament Book of Haggai, speak of God's promise for the restoration of God's Temple in Jerusalem.

And the works of this church and its congregation, over the course of more than 100 years, have resonated. Its history began in 1894 when elements of congregations of Hills Prairie and Smithville missions of the First Mexican Baptist Church in Waelder combined to establish an independent church in Bastrop: Primera Iglesia Bautista.

On March 1, 1903, that union was officially organized and recognized as a Baptist Church. This date is the first of two commemorated in the entablature on the front façade. The panel also displays the original name of the church; the present name—Primera Baptist Church—was adopted in 1998.

In 1906, the small congregation obtained property extending southwest of what is now the intersection of Gutierrez and Paul Bell Streets and built a small wood-frame church building on that corner. Late in 1912, two congregants attended a Baptist convention in San Antonio in search of a pastor. At this meeting, they learned of Paul Carlyle Bell, who was soon to receive an engineering degree at Baylor University...and whose energy, commitment and vision was to guide the church for 30 years. [Also, while in San Antonio, a bronze bell was purchased for the church, brought back to Bastrop and installed on the church property. That bell now sits on the left side of the main entrance to the church.]

The 25-year-old Bell accepted the call of the church and, while completing his academic work in Waco, commuted to Bastrop on weekends. As graduation neared and to concentrate on his studies, Bell briefly stepped down as pastor from March to May, 1913—during which Rev. Fermin Gallegos filled in for Rev. Bell. During his first year as pastor, Bell opened an elementary school for Mexican children in the church, a school that would continue until the early 1930s when the Bastrop Independent School District established, with the church's encouragement, the nonsectarian Mina Ward School for Mexican-American children.

Between 1916 and 1917 and after some debate within the congregation, a tabernacle was built adjacent to the church. Rev. Bell's hopes for the church included creating a school to train new pastors and an orphanage; both dreams would have to wait until the 1920's to be realized.

Rev. Bell left Bastrop briefly in 1920 to become pastor at Primera Baptist Church in Austin but returned the following year. Briefly during the 1920's Bell served as pastor of the First (Anglo) Baptist Church of Bastrop as well as Primera Iglesia Bautista, ministering to both congregations but alternating Sundays between congregations.

In 1922, the church purchased from Mrs. Sarah J. Orgain the rest of the block on which the original church was sited. The purchase was achieved through the contributions of members of the congregation and the support of the Home Mission Board, with the remainder by Mrs. Orgain herself. On the newly acquired land, the congregation promptly set about building a larger church structure with a cement foundation. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held in 1924—with Mrs. Orgain turning the first shovel. This date is commemorated, along with the church's 1903 founding, on the church's east façade.

The new structure was very much a community effort, with local people—transcending denomination—pitching in on site preparation and throughout construction. And as the new building rose, the mission of the church itself grew. The old structure was further pressed into service, beginning in 1920, as an orphanage and, from 1925, as home to a Bible Institute to train ministers. Continuing to serve as a place for the meetings of the congregation while the new building was under construction, the old building contained classrooms and housed orphans, faculty and boarding students. A farm owned by Rev. Bell helped to provide food for the institute and the orphanage and to provide revenue through the sale of produce.

In 1928, as the new structure nearing completion, the institute moved to the new building. According to Dr. Louis R. Tyler who served as pastor from 1976 to 1981 and who compiled a detailed history of the church, the institute was free to students, with classes held in the morning and farming in the afternoon. Institute professors were largely area pastors who donated their time. Students would visit communities around Bastrop on Saturday "to gain practical experience in the Lord's work" and are credited with founding many new churches ministering to those of Hispanic origin.

Rev. Bell is credited with energetic fundraising throughout this period. Women's mission groups and the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention provided funds for teachers' salaries. But fundraising constraints—the Depression as well as the Cooperative Program of Southern Baptists' discouragement of fundraising initiatives on behalf of individual churches—forced Bell to rely on friends and, at times, his own salary for operating expenses. The orphanage was closed in 1936; the institute continued until 1941 when Bell retired as pastor and accepted a Home Mission Board assignment directing Baptist work in Panama. Bell died in 1952.

The building was extensively renovated in 1948 and today serves the whole community with Sunday School classes and Spanish and English services.