Auburn First Baptist Church

Auburn First Baptist Church's history dates to June 19, 1838. The first church structure was a log building erected on the north side of West Glenn Avenue on land donated by Judge John Harper, the Methodist founder of the town of Auburn. Land for the present location was given by Mrs. Matthew Turner. During the Civil War, while the church building served as a hospital for sick and wounded soldiers, a tornado collapsed the roof which landed on the church pews, thus sparing the lives of those inside. The Frazer family led the construction of a second building in 1866-1867. In 1892, the congregation's new building included Sunday School rooms and stained-glass windows. The present building was dedicated April 14, 1929. The Memorial Windows and the Memorial Pipe Organ were dedicated in the 1970s., The church prospered from its pastoral and lay leadership who also had impacts beyond Auburn. Pastor Harden E. Taliaferro edited the state Baptist paper and wrote fiction as a Southwestern humorist. Pastors A.Y. Napier and Howard Olive left for missionary work in China and the Philippines. Rev. M. W. E. Lloyd served as pastor three times for a total of eighteen years. Auburn University presidents I. T. Tichenor and Harry Philpott were ordained members, and Spright Dowell and Ralph B. Draughon served as lay leaders. The beloved team of John and Jeanette Jeffers, with music minister, Dale Peterson, provided the longest leadership. Preeminent lay leaders included Leland Cooper (the university's first Baptist Student Union director and the church's first woman deacon); Patrick Mell, C. E. Little and L. M. Ware.