Century-old Danville church to move to new location

One of North Main Hill’s historic churches will hold its last worship service Sunday.

Keen Street Baptist Church will close its doors and make room for a new funeral home, according to its pastor, the Rev. Adam Woods. Church members will merge with another Baptist church to form United Baptist Church just outside the city limits on U.S. 29 in Blairs.

Woods said the church decided to close and merge with Highland Baptist Church because it saw a new opportunity. He said the North Main Hill area doesn’t provide the church with room to grow and there are concerns about safety issues – especially for older members.

Woods said the new location definitely provides the possibility of expansion. 

“If we can’t grow there, we can’t grow anywhere,” he said.

Keen Street has about 339 members with an average Sunday attendance of about 100.

Church member F. Lawrence McFall said Keen Street was founded on Jan. 19, 1904, with 33 members, in the home of James Collie on Clay Street. The church was an outreach of Second Baptist Church.

The people who attended the initial gathering had their membership letters from other churches and they were ready to get this congregation moving, McFall said.

On Jan. 24, they purchased the sanctuary out of what became Calvary Methodist Church, which was located on Keen and Church streets. The sale price was $1,200.

McFall started attending Keen Street in 1951, when he was 12. The church offered youth programs, including a

little league baseball team. He played right field and joked he held that position because he “had a hard time catching the ball.”

Then there were the meals McFall’s Sunday school class served up two or three times a year.

“We had a great time,” he said.

McFall said what he will remember about Keen Street isn’t necessarily the sermons or special events, but being able to attend church with his daughters as they were growing up.

“We never missed. It was a regular thing for us to go to church,” McFall said. “We were there every Sunday.”

The Keen Street building has been sold to Beaver Funeral Home.

People who join the new United Baptist Church will have the opportunity to be charter members. Church officials said the window for this opportunity will close Dec. 31.

Contact Bernard Baker at bbaker@registerbeecom or (434) 791-7986.