Park Street Baptist Church's history is tied largely to the history of Elmwood Park, the neighborhood in which the historic church building is located -which was also the original location of the State Fair Grounds and the downtown's first real suburb.  To read about Elmwood Park's rich history, click:

http://www.historicelmwoodpark.org/about/history.shtml

Interestingly enough, the original Park Street Baptist church was neither called Park Street Baptist nor was it a church in the traditional sense of four-walls.  Meeting with 22 people on June 12, 1910, city missionary Rev. Carlisle Courteny led the first service in a tent.  The original name of the church became Elmwood Park Baptist Church.

Two years later, in 1912, the church erected its first permanent structure.  Portions of that structure stand today at the corner of Park and Bryan.  However, the church found itself in an interesting predicament -the cost of the structure was high and the size of the congregation was not.  The church had itself a beautiful landmark, to be sure.  But it also had a small congregation.  So, naturally, they found themselves in a great deal of debt.

Not far away, however, was another church that found itself in the opposite situation.  Second Baptist Church had outgrown its facilities, so the congregation was much larger than the building could accommodate.

A plan was developed.  The two churches would merge, taking care of the limited facilities of the one and the insurmountable building expenses of the other.

The merger took place in 1915, and the name of Elmwood Park to Second Baptist.

Eleven years later, in 1926, the name was changed once again to Park Street Baptist Church, a name that it has kept to this day.

We are associated with the Columbia Metro Baptist Association and cooperate with the South Carolina Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.