Morrisville Town Center Plan - 2007

Appendix 2

10. Morrisville First Baptist Church

209 Church Street Originally organized as Bethany Church in 1866, the congregation first met at a church near the intersection of Morrisville-Carpenter Road and Davis Drive. In 1874, the church moved into Morrisville and erected a new building. The current building was built in a Gothic Revival style frame around 1900 and originally featured decorative sawn work similar to that seen on houses throughout the town. In the 1980s, the exterior of the church was brick veneered.

Photo by Ernest Dollar

The cemetery in the rear of the church features a rare “grave house,” or small gabled shelter with picket railing. Local lore states the shelter was built because of the deceased woman’s fear of thunder.

The church as it appeared on the 1870 map of Wake County by Fendol Bevers.

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66 │ Town Center Plan

January 2007