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2015-2016 Odessa City Guide
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First Baptist Church
, 100 W. OO Highway.
Many of the oldest churches in the Odessa area were chartered more than 100 years ago. The Presbyterian, First Baptist, First Chris-
tian, St. George Catholic, United Methodist and Church of Christ are six of the oldest churches in the community. Some of these churches
have had at least six generations of family members in attendance.
Community
Church History
In 1874, the
First Baptist Church
organized, meeting in Mt.
Hope. Prior to 1879, the branch was known as the Mt. Hope Baptist
Church before the congregation moved to the year-old city of Odessa.
Until the frame church building could be completed, services were
held in Gibbs Hall, at one time across from today’s City Hall.
Completed in 1878 for $1450, the building became the first of-
ficial church home for the congregation. The original church was on
Dryden Street, across from the present First Christian Church. The
building was damaged in an 1886 storm.
In November, 1924, a new church was built at First and Mason. It
later included an educational building, added to the west of the struc-
ture in 1956 and an additional annex completed in 1976.
The Odessa First Baptist Church celebrated its 125th anniversary
in 1999. The church had 22 original members in 1924, as many as
1000 on its 100-year anniversary, and maintains a current member-
ship of more than 500.
Due to membership growth and the need for a larger facility, the
congregation sold that structure and moved in August 2007 into
a new church building on property at the southwest corner of the
intersection of Highway 131 and Route OO. The building contains
classrooms, offices, kitchen and nursery facilities and a large mul-
tipurpose room, which is being used as a sanctuary.
Future plans include adding a sanctuary on the north end of the
building.
Calvary Baptist Church
, I-70 and 131 Highway.
In 1978, 100 members from the congregation left the First Baptist
Churchand formed the
CalvaryBaptist Church
,which sits atop ahill
on I-70 overlooking the city of Odessa. That church celebrated its 20-
year anniversary in 1998. A new sanctuary was completed in 2003.
The
First United Methodist Church
, organized in 1880,
constructed its first church building in 1882 and an additional
structure in 1896. Both were destroyed by fire in 1903. A new build-
ing was built and ready for occupancy by October 17, 1904. Since
that time, the church has added a sanctuary, educational building,
classrooms, and basement, including remodeling the original part
of the building.
First United Methodist Church
, 303 S. 1st Street.
First Christian Church
, 224 W. Dryden.
The
First Christian Church
congregation met for the first time
in 1879. The Greenton and Mt. Hope congregations blended into the
Odessa congregation since both towns moved nearer the railroad.
Later, in 1880, a building was constructed from materials removed
from the Greenton church, which dates back to 1850.
The First Christian Church, destroyed in the 1886 tornado, was
replaced by a frame building which burned. A third church, built in
1893, was placed on the same site and was dedicated on November
21, 1926. An addition to the church, which includes an elevator, was
dedicated in 1995.