Lakewood Baptist Church

Lakewood Baptist, likely 1920s (Courtesy Charles Howard)

Lakewood Baptist, like several of the original congregations in Lakewood, met in the original Lakewood School and utilized the lake and open areas at Lakewood Park for baptisms and revivals. The church built a frame structure at James and Bivins Street around 1915 before movin' on up to this brick masonry, temple-style Greek Revival structure in 1924.

The front facade of the church was veneered or replaced with the current concrete pebble-dash panels in 1980 when the interior of the church was renovated.

Looking west, 1980 (Durham Architectural Inventory)

I hope they veneered it, and work on raising some cash to bring back the brick someday.

Looking west, 04.26.08


35.986132 -78.928868

Lakewood Baptist Church closed its doors on April 20, 2014, and gifted the building to the Yates Baptist Association in late 2014 or early 2015.

The veneer was removed in December 2019, restoring the original brick front of the church.  As of 2022, three congregations meet in the building, most for the better part of a decade.  The largest of the three is Oak Church, which started a community pollinator and vegetable garden when they opened their doors in October 2014.  Oak Church has rotated art installations in the front windows since the original brick facade was restored.  The other two churces are Mt. Sinai Baptist, a Spanish-speaking congregation, and Gospel Baptist, a Burmese congregation. 

Facing west, April 2020, Easter