08/30/2026
First Baptist Church — Russellville, Alabama
First Baptist Church of Russellville traces its beginning to 1867, when a group of local residents organized a Baptist congregation in the heart of the young town. Before having a home of their own, the congregation worshiped in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1893, they constructed a white-frame church building, giving the growing congregation its first permanent sanctuary.
As Russellville entered the twentieth century, the congregation continued to grow. In 1909–1910, First Baptist constructed its first brick church—the building represented in this drawing. With its tall corner tower, steep rooflines, arched openings, and detailed brickwork, the sanctuary became part of the architectural landscape of downtown Russellville and represented a new era for the congregation.
Growth eventually required the church to expand beyond this sanctuary. An education building was added in 1949, followed by a new sanctuary and pastorium in 1957. Further additions came in the decades that followed, and today the First Baptist campus occupies two city blocks. The congregation itself has remained part of Russellville for more than a century and a half and celebrated its 159th year in 2026.
In recognition of that history, First Baptist Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 2019, and an Alabama Historical Commission marker was erected at the church in March 2024.
For this piece, I chose to draw the old church simply. The surroundings have been stripped away and the building allowed to stand almost by itself, not as an attempt to recreate one particular day in Russellville, but to let us see the architecture clearly. Before the additions, before the larger campus, and before generations of change, this was the church that stood here.
It is a portrait of the building itself, and of another piece of Russellville that once was.
