 The Baptist Church of Garden City began as a mission started by Riverview Baptist Church under the direction of Mr. J.E. Rabb. The first meeting was held on January 7, 1945 in the Garden City Community Hall and continued to be held there for some time until Beulah Hickox offered her garage on Dunn Avenue at no charge. There the church was organized as the Garden City Baptist Church with Rev. Fred Green, a resident of Garden City, as the first pastor. The charter members included the Rev. and Mrs. Fred Green and their family, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Perkins and son, Mrs. Dorothy Ponce Bailey, and W.C. Sessions along with his first wife, Elizabeth, and their children. W. C. (Bill) Sessions, the owner and operator of Session's Dairy, was a fine man. He and his first wife, Elizabeth whom I don't remember, were to become very close friends of my family. When Elizabeth was killed in a collision with a train, Bill married Chloe, my mother's best friend. The Sessions were to remain very good friends of my family until both their deaths a couple of years ago. The first church building was constructed on the northeast corner of Dunn Avenue and Duval Road. It is that building that you see in the old photograph above. It was in that building that my family and I first started going to church. It was in that building that my sister, Beverly was married. Later, a new church was build beside the old church and the old church became the "parsonage" for a long while although that is no longer the case. Somewhere along the way, "The Garden City Baptist Church" became "The First Baptist Church of Garden City." In the year 2001 the church land and building were sold to an Afro-American Christian group called Opens Arms Christian Fellowship which seems to be doing well in their new home. The First Baptist Church of Garden City has re-combined with The Riverview Baptist Church and has now been re-build on Armsdale Road as Garden View Baptist Church. |
