
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203130439
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FIRST BAPTIST IN SALEM MARKS 125TH

From a home that was on what is now Craig Avenue in 1867, First Baptist Church in Salem has grown to its present worship and education center at 226 S. Broad St. On Friday, members will begin celebrating the church's 125th anniversary.

For the first observance of Salem's anniversary, the Rev. E.G. Hall, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church of Charlottesville, will speak Friday evening at 7 at the Salem Civic Center. Hall is president of the Virginia Baptist State Convention.

The church will conclude the anniversary events March 29 with morning and afternoon services. Following Sunday school at 9:30 a.m., the Rev. Carey W. Casey of Kansas City, Mo., will preach at 11 a.m.

The 3:30 p.m. service will be conducted by the Rev. Thurman O. Echols Jr. and the choir of Moral Hill Baptist Church at Axton. Also present will be the Rev. Brad R. Braxton, currently studying at Oxford University in England, and two other men associated with the church's past, the Revs. Thomas E. Pleasant and Johnny R. Stone.

Pastor of the church now is the Rev. James Allison Braxton Sr. who has led the congregation for more than 20 years.

A history of the church reveals that its first prayer services were held in the Longwood Park vicinity near Craig Avenue at Elizabeth Campbell's home. Volunteer ministers served for a time, and soon meetings were moved to White Oak and Calhoun streets. By 1887, the Broad Street property was purchased and a frame church erected.

In 1901 the church started the Schaeffer Memorial congregation.

Expansion of the building began in 1971. A house on the nearby property was used for education space until it was demolished five years ago to make room for the Salvation Wing Family Life Center. Eventually a new worship center will be added.

by CNB