HISTORY
Sixty-five years ago, there had been several families in Bountiful who were members of the First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, and they were agitating for a church in Bountiful. These families were very persistent in their request for an extension church.
Dr. Fenwick Fowler, pastor of the Salt Lake First Baptist Church, had the development of an extension church in mind when Warren Vinz was hired as Associate Minister in 1957. Part of his job description was to spend half time organizing a congregation in Bountiful around this core group of people.
First Baptist Church held its first meeting in Bountiful on Sept. 14, 1957 as a Mission Church. The approximately 100 members of the church had been meeting in the South Davis Junior High School since its organization for over a year. These were the days before the name of the school was changed to Bountiful Junior High.
Bountiful First Baptist was born.
Times were exciting because they purchased property to build on Orchard Drive, a location that had not yet developed into prime property but certainly promised to do so in the future. It was the logical direction for city growth. They paid $16,000 for the property and it was appraised in excess of $21,000.
On November 3, 1957, more than 100 persons attended groundbreaking ceremonies.
Crews of church members were busy evenings trying to finish the work, and they moved into their new church home on May 17, 1959.
The original charter was signed by 32 members, and between that time and 2010, 497 people became members, some for many, many years, and some for as long as they lived. It was a church family in every sense of the word. There were at least three ministers who made the comment that it was the best church they had ever served.