67 / 125
66
│
Town Center Plan
January 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.
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.
13
Photo by Ernest Dollar
The church as it appeared on the 1870 map of Wake County by Fendol
Bevers.