First Baptist Church, Puce

Photo by Alan L Brown - September 4, 2004

Photo by Alan L Brown - September 4, 2004

Plaque Location

The County of Essex
The Town of Lakeshore
On the east side of Puce Road just south of County Road 42 (Division Road), street number 710

Plaque Text

The origins of First Baptist Church go back to the 1840s, when black settlers from the United States began to form a farming community in this area. Their numbers increased during the 1850s when the Refugee Home Society purchased lands along the Puce River to sell to freedom-seekers from the American South. Religion played an important role in community life. At first Baptists and Methodists worshipped in the same building, but by the early 1860s they had their own churches. This church built in 1964, replaced a frame church that had served the Baptist congregation since 1871. It stands today as a symbol of the cultural and spiritual continuity of the black community at Puce.

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