Watertown Baptist Church, Another Otis Wheelock Creation

Along with the Watertown Baptist Church, the period after the great fire of 1849 was a busy one for architect Otis Wheelock.  Designing two-thirds of a downtown decimated by fire enabled Mr. Wheelock to put his stamp on the city for more than a century, some of his achievements still in use such as the Paddock Arcade while others, like the Woodruff and Crowner Houses, would eventually be torn down in the 1960’s and 70’s.

According to Joel Henry Monroe’s Through Eleven Decades of History: Watertown, a History from 1800 – 1912:

The Baptist Church built in 1837, burned in the fire of 1849, and was at once replaced with a brick structure. This continued to house the growing congregation till 1891, at which time the present stone church was built on the same ground.

Although the $6,000 Watertown Baptist Church itself was replaced with the First Baptist Church that we know today in 1891, some of its walls were incorporated into the current church’s architecture.