A SHORT HISTORY OF HAYES BARTON BAPTIST CHURCH
In the early 1920s, Raleigh was growing. The streetcar tracks came down Glenwood Avenue and went all the way to Bloomsbury Park, and lots were being sold in the area called “Hayes Barton.” The 1922–1923 City Directory showed the street names Aycock, Vance, and Cowper, but only one house on Aycock. It was in 1922 that the Baptist City Council of Raleigh, forerunner of the Raleigh Baptist Association, purchased a site for a new Baptist church between Whitaker Mill and White Oak roads at Glenwood Avenue, in anticipation of the city’s northerly growth.
By 1926, there were a number of houses in the area, and in the fall of that year, a number of meetings were held in the neighborhood for the purpose of organizing a Baptist church. Officers were named, and yes, being Baptists, committees were appointed.
On Sunday, November 7, 1926, at 2:30 p.m. in the North Vanguard Presbyterian Church—now Westminster Presbyterian Church—on Whitaker Mill Road, Hayes Barton Baptist Church was organized.
QUOTING FROM LUTHER HUGHES' HISTORY OF THE CHURCH:
“After brief preliminaries, the names of those with their letters were read and a motion to organize a Baptist Church was made. The motion was carried unanimously.”
“A motion to name the new organization the Hayes Barton Baptist Church also carried unanimously.”
“In response to an invitation extended to those desiring to unite with the new church by profession of faith, 4 others…were received for baptism.”
“It was agreed that all members received into the church by January 1, 1927 would be considered charter members.”
When that day came, 173 charter members had been enrolled. Men of the church and friends built the first temporary structure. They called it “the Tabernacle.” The first service was held there on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1926. Late in 1927, the little wooden structure was torn down, and work began on a beautiful cream-colored brick structure of classical architecture, which included classrooms, kitchen, and office space, as well as a sanctuary which would seat 850.
The 1940s were a period of growth for Hayes Barton Baptist Church, not only in church staff and church programs, but also in the acquisition of additional property. Hayes Barton had its first missionaries in 1946, and in December 1950, Hayes Barton sponsored a “Living Nativity,” the first such project in Raleigh and perhaps in North Carolina. Over 100,000 people viewed it. The “Living Nativity” continues to be a part of the Christmas traditions at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.
Space limitations within the growing church necessitated expansion, and the Educational Building, which included a chapel that seated 140, was completed in 1953. Major renovations on the older sanctuary were made in 1956.
On September 5, 1962, ten months after the church observed its thirty-fifth anniversary, the sanctuary and entire portion of the church which had been built in 1928 were destroyed by fire. The Educational Building suffered extensive smoke and water damage. That night, in a special called session, the Deacons voted to rebuild, as did the church congregation at its Sunday Worship Service at the Colony Theater, now the Rialto.
Although there were major delays in the rebuilding program, ground was broken for the new building, Colonial Georgian in style, on January 3, 1965. The church membership entered the Education Building facilities on August 28, 1966, and the first service of worship was held in the new sanctuary, on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1966, exactly 40 years after that first service in the little wooden “Tabernacle.”
Pastors Who Have Served the Church since its Inception Are:
Dr. James B. Turner – February 1927–January 1931
Dr. Louis R. Gaines – March 1931–August 1933
Dr. Carl M. Townsend – November 1933–August 1947
Dr. John W. Kincheloe, Jr. – June 1948–October 1962
Dr. T. L. Cashwell, Jr. – January 1964–March 1985
Dr. George L. Balentine – October 1986–June 1995
Dr. David J. Hailey – July 1996–Present.
—Written by Sarah Williamson