Many of us have heard of fiery church sermons, but the First Baptist Church on Lawrence Street actually burned to the ground during Sunday morning worship services in 1869.

The Baptists are the second-oldest religious society in Methuen (the First Church Congregational being the oldest, dating to 1729). A small Baptist society existed in the western part of town about 1778. Their small, crudely built church was located in the area of the present Elmwood Cemetery on North Lowell Street. They later ceased to function as an organized society. Nevertheless, itinerant ministers continued to conduct baptisms and services in various locations in town for many years. Baptisms were occasionally held in the Merrimack River.

In 1815, a small group of Baptists organized the First Baptist Society of Methuen. They hired the Rev. Charles O. Kimball of Bradford as their first pastor and built a parsonage house for him on what is now the former Searles Pine Lodge estate on Lawrence Street. They built their first permanent church a short distance away on Lawrence Street in 1816. The society outgrew that building and replaced it with a larger one in 1840. The town held its town meetings in the vestry there until the town hall was built on Broadway in 1853.

But disaster struck the parish March 21, 1869. During Sunday morning church services, worshipers noticed smoke coming from below the floor around the heat register. Flames soon erupted as the people made a hasty escape. The town’s on-call fire department soon arrived on the scene with its two small hand engines. By this time, however, the fire was spreading rapidly throughout the building.

There was no underground water supply with hydrants in those days. The only water source available for fighting the fire was nearby wells, but they soon went dry. Lawrence Fire Department responded with two hand engines. Fire crews and helpful onlookers extended hose lines several hundred feet down the street to the force pumps at the Methuen Company cotton mills by the Spicket Falls. By the time the firefighters established a steady stream of water to attack the flames, the building was already doomed; it was quickly and completely consumed. Strong winds carried burning embers throughout the neighborhood, damaging several nearby homes – including the Waldo House (now the Methuen Family Funeral Home). Fire crews miraculously saved those buildings from destruction. The cause of the blaze was a faulty heating system, not fire and brimstone from the pulpit.

The church was rebuilt soon after and dedicated the following year. It remains their active house of worship to this day. The one noticeable change to the structure over the years is the removal of the tall spire in 1912. The church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

As a result of this fire, the fire department replaced the antiquated hand engines with a steam fire engine the following year. In 1873, the town reached an agreement with David Nevins of the Methuen Company to use his mill’s force pumps to feed a system of underground pipes with hydrants in the village for firefighting purposes.

A side note of interest: Jesse Searles bought Rev. Kimball’s parsonage and the surrounding acreage in 1841. His son, Edward F. Searles, was born in the house in 1842. Edward later attached it to his adjacent Pine Lodge home. A section, possibly including his boyhood bedroom, remains today.

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Ken Doherty is a lifelong resident of Methuen. He served on the Methuen Fire Department from 1980 to 2010. He is the Fire Department historian and a former member of the Methuen Historical Commission. He wrote “Á History of Methuen and its Fire Department” in 1996. He is retired and still living in Methuen with his wife, Paula.

First Baptist, built at Lawrence and Park streets in 1816 then replaced with a larger building there in 1840, is shown in the late-1800s. Courtesy photo

A fire broke out during Sunday services in 1869, consuming First Baptist. The church was rebuilt and dedicated the next year. In 2024, the exterior received a top-to-bottom repainting. ML file photo