at St. Paul and St. Anthony, met at the residence of Asa Fletcher on Portland Avenue and organized the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis. The charter members were: Rev. E. W. and Mrs. M. P. Cressey, Joshua Draper, Asa, Hezekiah, Margaret, Nancy and Timothy Fletcher, Mary Gordon and Harriet N. Jackins. At first the meetings were held in the homes of the members, Rev. E. W. Cressey performing the duties of pastor. In November, 1853, Rev. T. B. Rogers came to the chuch as pastor and meetings were held in a hall over Chambers' store on Bridge Square. Then services were conducted for some time in Fletcher's Hall, at the foot of Helen Street (now Second Avenue South). From that place the society moved to another Fletcher's hall, near the corner of Second Street and Second Avenue South.

In 1857 Henry T. Welles donated a lot for a church building, at the corner of Third Street and Nicollet Avenue. The basement of the church there was first occupied on Sunday, February 7, 1858. In 1866 this property was sold and a new church was erected on the corner of Fifth Street and Hennepin Avenue. It was dedicated on November 29, 1868, by Rev. W. T. Lowry, who was then installed as pastor. After a few years this church was sold for $103,000 and a site on the corner of Tenth Street and Harmon Place was purchased for a new structure. The new building, which is the present house of worship, was dedicated on December 19, 1886. It is of Kasota stone, well furnished, and originally cost $135,000. The organ was presented to the church by George A. Pillsbury and his sons, Charles A. and Fred C. Rev. William T. Chase was pastor at the time this church was built. He was succeeded by Rev. Wayland Hoyt, who was in turn succeeded by the present pastor, Rev. W. B. Riley.

The First Baptist Church is the mother of all the Baptist churches on the west side of the river. During the year 1922 Jackson Hall, located in the rear of the church, was erected. On April 8, 1923, the last services, prior to a general remodeling, were held in the church. The alterations were made necessary by the lack of room, the new auditorium having more than double the seating capacity of the old. During the remodeling process services were held in Jackson Hall.

On December 29, 1885, a Baptist society known as the Marshall Street Baptist Church was organized with thirty-nine members, seven of whom came from the First Church. In 1873 the name was changed to the Fifth Avenue Church. About ten years later, when the society moved into its new house of worship at Fourth Avenue and Grant Street, the name of Central Baptist Church was adopted. For a time the church prospered, then it began to decline and the building was finally sold to the Lutherans. It is now the home of the Central Lutheran Church.

The next Baptist society to be organized was the Fourth Baptist Church. It grew out of a Sunday School, which was started by members of the First Church, in July, 1874. The church was organized on December 19, 1881, and Rev. T. G. Field was installed as the first pastor. A building had been erected in November, 1874, and dedicated as "Jewett Chapel." This structure was twice enlarged, but the growth of the membership made a new edifice necessary. A site at Dupont and Eighteenth avenues North

was purchased and a comfortable house of worship was erected at a cost of $25,000. Rev. W. E. Loucks is the present pastor.

Immanuel Baptist Church was organized with twenty-six members on March 25, 1883. The first pastor was Rev. D. D. MacLaurin, who remained with the church until 1890. During his pastorate a church building on the corner of Bloomington Avenue and Twenty-third Street was erected at a cost of $64,000. Subsequently this property was sold and a new edifice was built at Thirty-first Street and Columbus Avenue. The name of this society has been changed to the Temple Baptist Church, of which Rev. R. A. Kenyon was pastor in 1922.

Calvary Baptist Church was organized on May 6, 1883. All but one of the twenty-four charter members had formerly belonged to the First Church. The first pastor was Rev. W. W. Pratt, who was succeeded by Rev. G. L. Morrill in December, 1884. A chapel was completed in February, 1889, and the main portion of the church building was finished before the close of that year. Its cost was $40,000 and extensive alterations have since been made. The church is located at Blaisdell Avenue and West Twenty-sixth Street and at the close of the year 1922 was under the pastoral care of Rev. J. H. McLean.

A Baptist mission was started at Eighth Street and Twenty-third Avenue South in 1884. Services were held in rented quarters for about five years by different ministers. On October 1, 1889, the Tabernacle Baptist Church was organized, with Rev. W. W. Price as the first regular pastor. A brick building was soon afterward erected at a cost of $12,000. This structure has since been remodeled to meet the needs of the growing congregation.

Going back a few years in Baptist history, in the summer of 1871 eighteen Swedes, members of the First Baptist Church, withdrew from that organization and with six others formed the First Swedish Baptist Church, July 11, 1871. At first meetings were held in a room over a blacksmith shop on Nicollet Island, then in a hall over the National Exchange Bank. In January, 1872, Rev. John Ring was called to the pulpit as the first regular pastor. That year a frame house of worship was built at the corner of Sixth Street and Twelfth Avenue South at a cost of $3,000. This building was destroyed by fire in 1881. Services were then held for a short time in Harrison's Hall, but before the close of the year the society purchased the building that had been erected by the Second Congregational Church, at Eighth Street and Thirteenth Avenue South, where the society still has its home. The pastor at the close of the year 1922 was Rev. Eric Carlson.

Early in the year 1884 Rev. F. A. Petereit, a German Baptist preacher, began holding meetings in Minneapolis. As a result of his labors the First German Baptist Church was founded in March, 1885. A chapel on Twentieth Avenue North between Aldrich and Lyndale avenues, which has been erected for the Fourth Baptist Church was purchased for $5,000 and $4,000 were expended in improving the property.

Elim Swedish Baptist Church was formally instituted on February 24,