Providence Baptist Church papers

Selby Daniels, the complier of this collection, was a history enthusiast whose interests primarily concerned Abraham Lincoln and local history in and around Charlotte, North Carolina. As an amateur historian, he also collected (among other things) notes and documents concerning the history of Providence Baptist Church, where he was a member. Daniels owned a construction business in Charlotte known as AMK Trim, Inc. He died in 2009.

The Providence Baptist Church traces its origins to 1953 when a small group of Baptists in southeastern Charlotte, North Carolina began meeting in “the hut,” a structure owned by Dr. and Mrs. L.F. Baumgardner on Meadowood Lane. The meetings were originally held for the purpose of determining the level of interest in establishing a new Baptist congregation in that part of Charlotte. By the latter part of 1953, these meetings included full-fledged church services with Sunday school classes. By early 1954 it became clear that there was sufficient interest and participation to establish a new church. Soon, the fledgling congregation had to move into a larger facility and began meeting in Eastover School. On Sunday, May 23, 1954, eighty-eight members of the newly formed “Providence Baptist Church” met to formally constitute the new congregation. After that, membership increased steadily over time. In its formative years, the ministerial duty of supplying the pulpit was fulfilled by a number of Baptist ministers in the Charlotte area who took turns preaching to the new congregation. PBC called its first full-time pastor, Reverend H. Gordon Weekly, in December of 1954. When the time came to plan for the purchase of land and construction of a church building, the Mecklenburg Baptist Association initially offered to the PBC a four-acre tract on Providence Road. As the congregation deemed this property to be too small for their needs, they decided to decline the offer. Instead, they decided to purchase an eight-acre tract located at the corner of Randolph and Hunter roads. The Mecklenburg Baptist Association provided most of the money for the purchase, with the rest of it coming from a bank loan. Once they had acquired sufficient property for a church building, the elders began making plans for the design and construction of a fellowship hall. This building was completed in February of 1955 and an additional wing was completed the following summer. The following year, PBC bought a house on adjacent property to use as a temporary educational annex. The debt on the building construction and new property purchase was retired by the end of 1957. Additions to the church building came rapidly and within a few years, BPC became one of the largest Baptist churches in North Carolina. By the mid-1960s, PBC initiated the process of establishing another congregation, located at the corner of Carmel and Sharon View roads. This new church congregation took with it about one hundred members from PBC. The Carmel Baptist Church soon grew to become one of the larger suburban churches in the area. Even with this partial transferral of membership, PBC continued to grow and eventually needed more building space. By the time Pastor Weekley resigned in late 1967, PBC’s membership had surpassed one thousand. PBC called Pastor William Henry Crouch to fill the pulpit in October of the following year. Over time, PBC continued to purchase adjacent parcels of land and construct building additions. By the time of its twenty-five year anniversary in 1979, it had twenty five acres and a sanctuary that could hold a thousand people. Moreover, it also led to the founding of a second church—Sharon Baptist Church, in 1971; and a third one—Candlewyck Baptist Church, in 1979.