First Baptist Church
By: Alia Bonanno, Selim Kim, Emilia Kniestedt, Andrew Yuan
The First Baptist Church of Exeter (First Baptist Church), known to many as the “Red Brick Church” on Front Street, has served as a religious and community center for the town of Exeter for 220 years. After four attempts at relocation, the Church has announced that they will be selling the building and moving to a smaller venue.
Community:
From marriages to baptist services, the First Baptist Church is known to the townspeople of Exeter as a place of milestones. Regular attendee Jack Norton observed that almost everyone in the town of Exeter has made at least peripheral contact with the church. “When I talk to people and say [the First Baptist Church]... multiple people whom I had no idea had any contact with the church had said, ‘Oh, I've been to weddings there. I was baptized there. I had my mother's funeral there.’ There's a deep rooted connection in the community for it,” Norton said. “My wife moved up from Pennsylvania. Didn't have a lot of friends, not a lot of people to turn to, but just through meeting family at the church, she has people to go to. Now, I have people that go, and those bad days are a lot easier when you can talk with people.”
The church was a place for many to feel a tight-knit sense of community. “It's a very discipling church… people come alongside of you and see what your needs are and help you along through a difficult time or a positive time. That's one of the most loving things about our church that I think is my favorite,” Trustee and Chairperson of the First Baptist Church Ray Erickson said.
Attendees of the church shared similar sentiments. “What I appreciate about the church, to me, was [the] community. It was a very warm and welcoming church. From the very first time I went, the people were very welcoming, and I just felt really at home there,” Church Historian and attendee Pam Hallett said.
The First Baptist Church’s annual traditions—Christmas pageants, candlelight vigils, Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations and coffee hours welcome to anyone—reflect their strong sense of community. “It’s interesting to note that our church... had a lot of Academy students attend Sunday services and coffee hour, especially the summer school students. 15 or 20 years ago, we would have as many as maybe a dozen,” Hallett said. “I would say for more than 30 years [the Church also] did a Thanksgiving day dinner for people in town that were alone. Maybe they were elderly, it could be for anyone… there was no cost to it and that was all done with volunteers. We were known for that.”
Over the past few years, the Church established new traditions that continue to further reflect their sense of connection with the town. “We've been part of a racial unity team. A gentleman who is part of our congregation… Ken Mendis… [has] done a couple of walks for racial unity,” Erickson said. “They're [also] involved now in Exeter High School. And I believe there’s a music program to help bridge some gaps for racial unity. “
“We're on the wave of a bunch of changes with the church. And we just try to be somewhat of a constant presence,” Erickson continued. “[At] the Revolutionary Festival, we try to have a booth down there to reach out to people. I remember a couple of years ago we were selling strawberry shortcake and just trying to be there, let people know we're here and just be another resource.”
The COVID-19 pandemic brought many unexpected challenges to the First Baptist Church community. “COVID, it changed everything… We've had some members, I don't want to say they've left, but they've kind of timed out. We do have a lot of elders in the community, in our church that just don't connect with Zoom. And so that was a little breakdown we had,” Norton said.
Nevertheless, the church remained open. “[We attempted to] follow up to try and reach out, shoot a text, an email, write a letter to just try and support our members at this time. So, that being said, we almost have a new set of tools... Now we're going to have a live video or [the sermon] might be recorded. I'm not quite sure what the future looks exactly like, but you won't have to lose that contact. You'll feel that love,” Norton continued.
Erickson looked at the silver lining of the unexpected opportunities the pandemic unearthed. “God's timing has been amazing… when we could see each other… we're looking face to face. You wouldn't even have that in a regular church service cause everybody's facing forward… we've actually created some better relationships between people that may not have even gotten close together at all, but over Zoom they have,” Erickson said.
Erickson decided to relocate the church in view of maintenance expenses, seeking to bring the focus of the church back to the community. “As we found ourselves, trying to keep up with the maintenance and expenses associated with a 300 person building… we were losing sight of what the community needed from our church and where we could best serve the community with God's resources,” Erickson said. “And so the First Baptist Church isn't going anywhere. We're letting God lead us, and we look forward to announcing the new location of the church soon."
The Church is hoping to continue to spread its sense of a tight-knit community and is excited to see what the future holds. “We just want to expand out more. We want to reach the youth. We want to get a children's school going, get a good core knowledge and just be able to talk to people and get rid of some stigmatisms that come along with church,” Norton said. “We just want to kind of spread that umbrella out and let people know when you want to talk, it doesn't have to be us preaching at you. Churches are dying in record numbers. So we're doing everything we can to try and keep some core values, but as well as find new ways to reach out.”
Hallett expressed excitement and appreciation for the beginning of a new journey. “We're sad to see the church building go but new things are going to be coming, and new things can be better sometimes so we're looking forward to that and we just have such wonderful people there,” Hallett said.
History:
Ten Exeter residents, self-identified as Baptists, met at the House of Harvey Colcord on Water Street in 1800. Five years later, they built a small meetinghouse at the corner of Spring and Water Streets with an expense of $4,000. They soon formed a closely-knit congregation, now known as the First Baptist Church. The society relocated again in 1833 to a small house on Spring Street, where the Folsom Tavern now stands. The current church building, historically known as the Red-Brick Church, on Front Street was built in 1875 by the historic Brown & Warren firm, and became officially established as the First Baptist Church in 1876.
The First Baptist Church of Exeter advocated for religious toleration in the state of New Hampshire since its inception. “The Baptist Church’s encouragement of civil government and private religion beliefs was a step away from the Puritan theocracy model that had formerly existed in town,” Curator of the Exeter Historical Society Barbara Rimkunas said.
The First Baptist Church incorporated women in their congregations since its foundation; women comprised 5 of the original group of ten founders. “Missionary work [was] so important to Baptists, [it] was usually organized by the women of the congregation,” Rimkunas said. “The women’s organizations that have formed over the years have been the lifeblood of the church.”
The Church was the first in Exeter to offer membership to African Americans. Nancy Paul and Lucy Duce were the first women of color to be incorporated into the church in 1817. “Other prominent Black families, such as the Whitfields, Harris & Cutler families, had some members join the church,” Rimkunas said.
Before building the church, an act of incorporation as the “First Baptist Church of Exeter” was obtained by the church from the State Legislature in 1874. The free pew system successfully operated for several years. The remaining balance of debt was entirely cancelled in the spring of 1885, allowing the Church to financially sustain itself.
The Church’s size has substantially increased after its foundation. In 1874, before the construction of the Church began, the congregation gained 32 new pastorates. During the following 16 years, the church attracted congregants from neighboring towns due to its tolerant religious practices and policies. By 1888, the Church was providing religious services for 249 members, with two Academy alumni serving on the Society of Christian Endeavor as Church Officers.
In 1958, the First Baptist Church’s bell chimes sparked controversy at the Academy. The chimes originally rang twice a day–at 11:15 a.m. and 7:15 p.m.—causing confusion among Academy students, who shared that it interfered with the concert hours and Classics Department class hours.
In response to the complaints, the Student Council President consulted with the administration and the First Baptist Church to move the chime hours to 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day to avoid the scheduling conflict.
Eventually, this change in ringing hours only contributed to more scheduling disorder, since the chimes were always out of step with the Academy’s clock. The Exonian reported on the confusion caused by the bells on November 12, 1958. Reverend Donald B. Morris said “several boys climbed into the window and substituted one of Rosemary Clooney’s popular records for the chimes recording” as an attempt to block away the chiming. The bells switched back to their original schedule.
Female members of the First Baptist Church co-wrote a cookbook, Exeter Cook Book, in 1883. The book contained local recipes of cottage puddings, mock turtle soup, stewed pigeon and puff cake with generous quantities of butter, eggs and sugar. The cookbook successfully earned the Church $673 the same year with its first 500 copies and helped the Church to pay back its construction fees. Accounting for inflation, the profit from the sale is equivalent to $15,480 today.
The Church received a significant endowment from Ambrose Swasey in the early 1900s. Swasey, baptized in the First Baptist Church in 1864, was a successful engineer who specialized in crafting telescopes and scientific instruments. Swasey helped to renovate the Church by ordering the construction of the iconic stained glass windows depicting St. John and St. Paul. In 1936, Swasey gave the Moller pipe organ to the Church in memory of his mother. A plaque at the back of the sanctuary honors him.
During World War II, the Church helped the American Bible Society distribute Service Testaments to the military. Many members in the communities joined to write letters that thanked the soldiers, their friends and families for their service. Following this historic tradition, the Church continues to distribute Service Testaments to the military today.
The Baptist Church and the Academy renewed their relationship recently. In 2017, the Baptist Church connected with the Academy and other town institutions to form the Racial Unity Team of Exeter.
Although initially a loosely-held group, the group began to form a community vision. “We decided to look at history in Exeter and create a Walk a Mile for Racial Unity,” local activist and campaign organizer Ken Mendis said. “That’s what kicked it off.”
The walk was created in response to the Charleston Church Shooting in 2015 and lasted for an hour. Residents walked through the town and explored the influence of race on Exeter’s history. The walk highlighted sites of importance in the racial history of town, where Black, Indigenous and Chinese American people made contributions or experienced discrimination.
The team has worked with organizations and institutions like the NAACP, the Exeter Methodist Church and We The People. The team does not have a religious focus but meets at the Red Brick Church and the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Exeter.
“This group is a revolution of love and unity,” Mendis said.
The Church hopes that even after moving to a new location, people will know that the community will still remain. “I want to let everyone know that the church isn't the building, the church is the people, it's the love, it's the relationships, and that will continue, might not be at that exact location, but the rest of it will continue,” Norton said. “We will be there. We'll always have a phone number and email. And we especially want our community to know that we're not leaving.”
