This First Baptist Church pictured here was, as best can be determined, the first Christian sanctuary to be built in Punta Gorda as a church. (The first church was in a community building that served as both a school and a church for Methodists and Baptists). The Baptists were the second group to organize a congregation here in the 1880s. The original congregation consisted of nine members. Among the original congregation were James L. and Mary L. (nee Seward) Sandlin, James M. and Martha (nee Sandlin) Morgan, and Mrs. Nancy Linquish.
This church structure built between 1891 and 1895 was on the corner of Marion and Cross (41 South). It was sold by the church to the Rebekah's for a lodge in the 1960s and later became a bridal store. Then on August 13, 2004 the winds of Hurricane Charley took it down in minutes.
