2023-2024 Odessa City Guide Page 34 CommunityChurch History New Horizon Presbyterian Church USA, 4266 S. 131 Highway, organized January 27, 1883, as the First Presbyterian Church of Odessa, was the first church to open in Odessa and stay at its original location until a new building opened for services on July 14, 2002. Church sits south of Odessa on 131 Highway on land donated by the B.B. Barr family. Name was changed prior to the move to the new location. The first building, destroyed in the May 11, 1886 tornado, had to be rebuilt. Eleven years later, in 1897, the building was dismantled and rebuilt after faulty workmanship and material were discovered. That building burned January 29, 1900, and the records were destroyed. Finally, for the fourth time, the building, constructed in 1900-01, was completed on the original site and was in use until it was razed upon completion of the new church building. Site, on the northeast corner of Second and Dryden streets, is now the home of NASB. Odessa Restoration Branch, 131 Highway North, organized when members broke off from the Odessa Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in September of 1989. Congregation met temporarily at the Odessa Truck Sales facility on I-70 until a new structure was built on Highway 131, one-fourth mile north of I-70. The first service was held there December 5, 1992. Odessa Church of Christ, Fourth Street and Otway, celebrated its 100th anniversary at this location in July, 1992. After meeting in different locations, the church’s first building was destroyed in 1886 by a tornado. Another building, erected on the same foundation, burned. The next building was constructed in 1893 on land purchased for $100 from the John Kirkpatrick Sr. family. The interior of that building was damaged in 1963 by a fire of unknown origin. The building has since been torn down to make way for a new gymnasium. The new sanctuary adjacent to the original structure was completed and dedicated in 1999. An additional fellowship hall/gymnasium opened in July, 2019. In 1905, Odessa also was the site of the Western Bible and Literary College, run by the church and housed in buildings which had been abandoned by an unsuccessful college. The dormitory still exists as two homes on South First Street and a third home southeast of Odessa on Varner Road. Calvary Baptist Church, I-70 and 131 Highway, was formed in 1978 when 100 members of the First Baptist Church left to create a new church, which sits atop a hill on I-70 overlooking the city of Odessa. Church celebrated its 40-year anniversary in 2018. A new sanctuary was completed in 2003. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 300 E. Crestview, was formed in 1979, meeting in a small facility on North Fourth Street for five years until 5.25 acres at the east end of Crestview Drive was purchased and a meetinghouse was built. Meetinghouse was rededicated in 2005 after a nine-month renovation which extended the north face of the building. Addition included a choir rostrum, additional classrooms, library, larger foyers, plumbing and HVAC. In 2006, the meetinghouse was expanded again to the south, providing larger auxiliary instruction rooms. Today the meetinghouse provides approximately 15,000 square feet of worship and instruction space.
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