New Hope Baptist Church

Front inscription

This church, established in 1804, grew out of Padgett’s Creek Baptist Church, mother to several area Baptist congregations. Rev. Spencer Bobo (d. 1816), a member there, was given permission to take “as many members as he thinks fit” and organize a new church. Bobo chose a site W of present-day Cross Anchor, near his home, deeding 7 acres for a sanctuary and cemetery.

Reverse inscription

The first church was a log building known as “Bobo’s Meeting House.” Bobo and Rev. Nathan Langston (1762-1834) preached there until Bobo’s death in 1816 and Langston preached there until 1832. The congregation, renamed New Hope Baptist Church in 1809, built a frame church by 1834. New Hope moved here and built this frame sanctuary in 1924-26. It was covered in brick veneer in 1961.