The congregation of Delmar Baptist Church will meet on August 29 to vote on a recommendation by their Long Range Planning Committee to move the church from its present location at Skinker and Washington. The Long Range Planning Committee, appointed by the congregation’s governing body, has recommended that Delmar Baptist church merge – with the Oak Chapel Baptist Church at Clayton and Straub Roads in West St. Louis County.
The vote will require a quorum of at least one-third of the congregation’s resident membership of approximately 480 persons.
According to a church spokesman, a vote to move requires a 75% plurality of those voting.
At present the spokesman reported three divisions of opinion among members of the congregation.’ One group wishes to move. Another group wants to maintain the traditional location of their church. A third group wishes to remain at the present site as a source of Christian action in the community.
Delmar Baptist Church has operated from its site at Skinker and Washington since its dedication in 1919. The educational building adjoining the church was purchased in 1927. It has a long history of distinguished service in the city and is noted especially for the variety of programs it has undertaken and its missionary activities. It was among the first to have a full time director of religious education. Its pre-school program has done an outstanding job of preparing youngsters, many of them disadvantaged, for school experiences. Delmar Baptist is one of the founding goups of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council.
As a congregation, Delmar Baptist reaches farther back into St. Louis history to 1877 when 37 people met to organize a Baptist Church which had its first home on Garrison Avenue. This building made the news as “The Church on Wheels” when it was transferred on rollers two blocks, west and was left Saturday evening on the rollers in the middle of the street. The congregation attended services in the building on Sunday and the building completed its move during the week following.
The name Delmar Baptist comes from its two locations on Delmar Boulevard and has continued in use at the present location.
A spokesman reports that if the congregation accepts the recommendation to move, the present building will be maintained until it can be sold or leased to a responsible party.
Original photograph caption
Delmar Baptist Church on the corner of Washington and Skinker.
Originally published in The Paper, August 1971.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1971_08.pdf, printed page 1, 2.
