Butts County History Center

Butts County History 📚

"When I was growing up during the 1950s and early 60's we had five new car dealerships in town, to list: Settle & Robinson Chevrolet, Moore Bros. Buick; White Pontiac Co., Spencer Ford Co., and Carter Motor Co sold Chrysler products. All these were downtown near the courthouse square. The buick dealer had an upstairs where they stored cars as well as a downstairs showroom and garage. John L. Coleman, father of our famous local artist, Scott Coleman rana garage on the square along with a body shop/junkyard on First Street."

-Story by Byrd Garland

Since there has been some conversation this week about the cleanup work going on at the Old First Baptist Church, here is some historical information about the building that you might find interesting.

The building was constructed on East Third Street, adjacent to the previous wooden church building that it replaced. The original building was later torn down for the parking lot on the east side of the building. The church building program, which was planned for several years, was led under the pastoral leadership of Dr. Robert Van Deventer, who pastored the First Baptist Church of Jackson for 16 years. The cornerstone was laid on May 22, 1914 and it was completed later that year at a cost of $35,000.00. The membership held their first service in the new building sanctuary on December 20th, 1914. The building is constructed primarily of beige brick and the original part of the building was 109 feet long by 60 feet wide, with a 35 foot wide loggia or portico supported by four massive columns. Other additions followed decades later.

The materials used to build the church were sourced from Washington DC (brick), North Carolina (steel roof), Virginia (slate) and of course, Georgia (marble and lumber). The stain glass windows were crafted by the Empire Glass Company in Atlanta and dedicated as memorials to several founding members of the church. Most of the windows remain in place to this day.

The style of this building is classical Grecian and featured porticos, pediments, doric columns, balustrade railings (removed in recent years) and pilasters. The defining feature of the Old First Baptist Church, which is unique in Butts County, is the monumental domed roof, which is constructed of curving copper panels and crowned with a windowed cupola to allow light to enter at the top. At some point, the dome was painted silver but as the paint has worn away, the oxidized green copper is beginning to show through again.

At the time of its construction, the building contained basement spaces which held the kitchen, a dining hall, a gymnasium and a concrete swimming pool. The main floor consisted of the sanctuary, which could seat up to 400 people, with Sunday school rooms surrounding the sanctuary on the main level and upper floor which could be opened up when additional seating for worship services was needed.

When it was completed in 1914, the church was very modern by the standards of the time, featuring electric lighting in all areas of the building (Jackson had only had electricity for a few years in 1914), and indoor plumbing throughout, both installed by the Newton-Carmichael Hardware Company of Jackson. It was heated by a modern furnace system built by the Williamson Heating Company of Atlanta and special care was taken in the design of the building to ensure excellent ventilation during the hotter months of the year. The sanctuary style is known as the Akron plan, which is known for having a central sanctuary surrounded by wedge shaped classrooms that radiated out from the pulpit area.

The Old First Baptist Church was designed by Sayre & Baldwin Architects and contracted by Quartermus & McDonald Contractors of South Carolina. It was used by the congregation for just over 60 years, from December 20th, 1914 until the final service on July 20th, 1975. The congregation moved into a brand new church on Highway 16 west and the building was sold to the First Assembly of God, who would go on to use it for more than 20 years before it was sold again. As of August 2023, the building is privately owned and is for sale, though no plans have been announced for it as of this writing.

The black and white photo was made at the time the building was completed and shows both the older original wooden structure next door that was torn down in 1916, two years after the 1914 building was completed. The colorized post card also is from shortly after the building's completion and shows the copper dome as it would have looked before it oxidized. The three new pictures are from August 2023.

The J.R. Carmichael House, July 13, 1977. The house had recently undergone its first major restoration since it was built in 1897. Designed by the renowned architectural firm of Bruce and Morgan in Atlanta, it was one of four local buildings designed by the firm that included the Wigwam Hotel at Indian Springs, the Butts County Courthouse and the Jackson Presbyterian Church.