St. Frederick’s Baptist Church celebrates 115 years of faith

MARBLE FALLS – The congregation of St. Frederick’s Baptist Church has two milestones to celebrate — 115 years of continued worship and the dedication of new granite monument.

Members of the church, 301 Ave. N, held a double observance earlier this month.

“The previous marker had been there for 30 years ever since the church was built. It needed to be replaced, so I went to Cold Spring Granite to ask what they could do,” said Bessie Jackson, who is in charge of mission outreach at St. Frederick’s.

“What we wanted to get was a double-sided marker to be seen from both sides of the street and I asked if they were interested in helping us. The company processed the paperwork fairly quickly and it only took one month for them to make it, but we ran in to some issues with the city of Marble Falls. It’s taken one and-a-half years for us to bring it to the church,” Jackson said.

Once the church was surveyed, it was discovered a portion of land was not on St. Frederick’s property.

“Also, the front door of the church was too close to the roadway and that created a liability issue,” Jackson said. “It caused us to remove the old marker and we will have to pay for an abandonment to have the city give us another 10 feet of roadway. The Planning and Zoning office is still trying to fix the issue.”

This is the third home the church has had since it was founded in 1893.

“Bringing this marker in was necessary because the old one was faded, needed polishing and it had the former pastor’s name on it. We talked about replacing it and wanted to upgrade one day anyway,” interim pastor George Perry said. Perry has presided over the congregation for four months. The search for a permanent pastor could take up to six months.

In the two church services held Nov. 23, the day of the dual celebrations, the morning service was used to dedicate the new monument and the afternoon service commemorated the 115th anniversary of the church. Many former church members came back to attend the services.

“To me, this is an honor to be at a church that’s been there so long. It gives us the chance to give thanks to people who have worshipped here a long time,” Perry said. “We even had some grandchildren and relatives attend that were related to the founding members of the church. This is considered a home to so many, even some who live out of town, but they still give back to St. Frederick’s and always come home to celebrate.”

byoung@thepicayune.com

Courtesy photo