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Churches and lodges

Mount Adar Baptist Church

In Carr. 11 dated events, 1889–1989.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

In the chronology

  1. Mount Adar Baptist Church is organized W. H. Whitted and A. J. Compton organized Mount Adar Baptist Church. A. T. Hord, first pastor at Berry's Grove two years earlier, was its first pastor too. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 301
  2. Mount Adar Baptist Church dedicates its first building Three years after organizing in a schoolhouse, Mount Adar dedicated a church built on land given by Fannie Hicks Christopher (Mrs. James Christopher), paid for with $520.99 in cash and $214.35 in work and materials. Dr. C. Davidson of the State Mission Board preached the dedication sermon. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 37
  3. Mount Adar hosts the Mount Zion Baptist Association for the first time The association's annual session met at Mount Adar for the first time and drew a large crowd. All four of the church's delegates that year were women, the first women it had sent since 1911. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 6
  4. Mattie Compton Vernon becomes the first burial in Mount Adar's cemetery Mattie Compton Vernon, a charter member who had married the Rev. John H. Vernon in 1895, died in 1928 and was the first person buried in the Mount Adar Baptist Church cemetery. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 35
  5. Mount Adar holds its first service in a new auditorium Plans to remodel, begun in October 1941, stalled when the builders in the area went to work at Camp Butner, and the program revived in 1946. During construction Mount Adar met for about eight months in Carr Methodist Church on alternate Sundays, then opened its new auditorium with two Sunday school rooms in May 1948. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 7
  6. Mount Adar ordains Robert Frazier, the first of its members to enter the ministry On the first Sunday in June 1952 the church ordained Robert Frazier, son of A. R. Frazier, the first of its own members to be ordained. He became its only foreign missionary, serving with his family among the Asmat people of Indonesia (formerly Dutch New Guinea). Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 8
  7. Mount Adar dedicates its completed church With money raised under pastor Jack Parham, the unfinished part of the building was completed for about $20,000 and the church dedicated. Former pastor Henry Morgan preached the dedication sermon. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 8
  8. Mount Adar ordains Jackie Hawkins Allen, the first woman it ordained The church ordained Jackie Hawkins Allen, daughter of John Oscar and Lois Hawkins and a Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate in pastoral care, to the Christian ministry. She was the first woman ordained by Mount Adar and its second member ordained, after Robert Frazier in 1952. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 25
  9. Mount Adar opens its building to Spanish-language services for migrant farmworkers With many migrant laborers in the area each summer and fall, the church let the Rev. Bain Daniels, a former missionary to South America, hold services in Spanish there every Sunday afternoon. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 28
  10. Sandra Hawkins Briggs is ordained Mount Adar's first woman deacon Elected a deacon in September 1988, after a committee revised the church's rules for choosing deacons, Sandra Hawkins Briggs was ordained in October as the first woman to hold the office at Mount Adar. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 28
  11. Mount Adar Baptist Church celebrates its centennial On the Sunday after the hundredth anniversary of its organization, the church presented a pageant by Debra Oakley Ward reenacting the 1889 founding at the morning service. Hallie Whitted McDade, daughter of charter member W. H. Whitted, was the guest of honor, and the centennial history was finished the next month. Blanche Sharpe Rogers and Tennala Abner Gross, Mount Adar Baptist Church, 1889-1989 (1989), scan p. 29

Open these in the chronology →

Indexed works

The index has no works about Mount Adar Baptist Church itself yet. The surveys and maps below cover where it stands. Search the index for Mount Adar Baptist Church, or tell us about a book or record we have missed.

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Mount Adar Baptist Church alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

History and Architecture of Orange County, North Carolina

Mattson, Richard L. · 1996 · Unpublished manuscript

Richard L. Mattson's manuscript survey of the history and architecture of Orange County, completed in September 1996. Its 78 pages cover the county's historic buildings and structures and end with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Orange County multiple property documentation form: "Historic resources of Orange County."

1993

National Register multiple property documentation form on the historic resources of Orange County, completed in 1993. Kelly Lally and M. Ruth Little led the first phase of the survey, and Jody Carter and Todd Peck the second. It runs 123 pages with a bibliography.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

[Architectural field surveys for Orange County : collected for the Historic and architectural resources of the Tar-Neuse River basin report]

1974 · Survey and Planning Branch, Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History

Historic building survey forms for Orange County gathered in 1974 by the state's Historic Preservation Section for a report on the Tar-Neuse River basin. About 400 pages of forms covering buildings in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the countryside; a form can carry a description, historical notes, location, a photograph and a floor plan.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Map of Orange County, N.C.

Tate, George W. · 1891 · George W. Tate

Facsimile, dated 1940, of George W. Tate's 1891 map of Orange County. It shows towns, roads, railroads such as the North Carolina Rail Road and the Chapel Hill line, residences, schools, churches, mills and mines, with portraits and pictures of buildings in the margins.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

A map of Orange County, N.C.

Noble, M. C. S. (Marcus Cicero Stephens), 1855-1942 · 1915

Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble drew this 1915 map to show how Orange County's original territory was divided, tracing the formation of Caswell, Person, Alamance, Durham, Chatham, Randolph, Guilford and Rockingham counties out of it. Topics include county boundaries and the history of political divisions in the Piedmont. Surviving as a photocopy on a sheet 31 by 23 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Soil map, North Carolina, Orange County sheet

United States · 1918 · United States Government Printing Office

Color soil map of Orange County issued in 1918 by the U.S. Government Printing Office at one inch to the mile, 68 by 46 cm. Besides soil types it marks roads and railroads, the Southern Railway among them, churches, schools, mills, stores, cotton gins, iron mines, cemeteries and the county home, and it names the townships of Bingham, Cedar Grove, Chapel Hill, Cheeks, Eno, Hillsborough and Little River.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Show 1 more surveys and maps

Map of Orange County, N.C. : 1939

Stanaland, E. A. · 1939 · E.A. Stanaland

Hand colored map of Orange County drawn by E. A. Stanaland and published at Parrott, Georgia, in 1939. It shows towns and townships, roads and railroads, and marks the schools and churches standing in the county. One sheet, 58 by 36 centimeters.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Start at OCPL

    Where to look on the shelf

    These books don’t necessarily mention Mount Adar Baptist Church, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

    Histories of the town and county

    • Foundational · NC 975.656 ORA Orange County--1752-1952 1953

      Hugh Talmage Lefler and Paul W. Wager's history of Orange County across its first two centuries, 1752 to 1952, prepared for the county's bicentennial. It covers government and politics, biography and the county's families, and doubles as a genealogical reference. Published in Chapel Hill by the Orange Printshop in 1953, 389 pages with illustrations and an index; this copy is a later reprint.

    Buildings and surveys

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

      Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

    • Foundational · NC 917.56 ORANGE An Inventory Of Sites Of Cultural, Historic, Recreational, Biological, And Geological Significance In The Unincorporated Portions Of Orange County Orange County (N.C.) · 1986

      County planning department survey of significant sites in the unincorporated parts of Orange County, published in 1988, 95 pages with maps. The survey covers cemeteries, church buildings and archaeological sites on the cultural side, and plants, animals, endangered species, wildlife refuges, geology and recreation areas on the natural side. Useful for local historians, genealogists tracing burial grounds and land planners alike.

    • Foundational · NC 363.69 HIS Historic Preservation Element: Orange County Comprehensive Plan ; Orange County, North Carolina Orange County (N.C.) · 1996

      The historic preservation element of Orange County's comprehensive plan, prepared for the county Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department by the Jaeger Company of Gainesville, Georgia, and adopted on 1 April 1996. Partly financed by National Park Service funds through the state Division of Archives and History, it sets county policy on historic buildings and sites and their conservation. 59 pages plus 50 unnumbered, with illustrations and maps, some folded and in color.

    Land, family and burial records

    • Start here · NC 333.16 CHILTON The Land Grant Atlas of Old Orange County Chilton, Mark · 2012

      Mark Chilton's oversized atlas plotting eighteenth-century land grants across the original Orange County, which stretched well beyond today's boundaries into what became Alamance and Durham counties. Published in Carrboro by Hand Made Books beginning in 2012, the set was planned in four volumes: Henry McCulloh's great tract number 11 and the land north of it; the Saxapahaw old fields (volume 2); Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the Johnston Tract; and Durham, Rougemont and McCulloh's tract number 12. Maps and color illustrations, 41 cm.

    • Start here · NC 306.097 KEN Kinship and Neighborhood in A Southern Community: Orange County, North Carolina, 1849-1881 Kenzer, Robert C. · 1987

      Robert C. Kenzer's study of kinship and neighborhood in Orange County between 1849 and 1881, the decades before and after the Civil War, tracing family ties and neighborhood networks through the county's records. Published by the University of Tennessee Press in 1987, 251 pages with illustrations, maps, portraits and a bibliography. Topics include kinship, neighborhoods and social conditions in the county in the nineteenth century.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.509 STO Tombstone Inscriptions: Recorded From Private or Abandoned Cemeteries in Alamance and Orange Counties, North Carolina Stokes, Durward T. · 1979

      Durward T. Stokes's transcriptions of tombstone inscriptions from private and abandoned cemeteries in Alamance and Orange counties, dated at Graham, N.C., August 25, 1979. A photocopied typescript of 60 leaves with 10 preliminary pages, it preserves names and dates from family and neglected burial grounds and is a genealogical source for both counties.

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Investigate a school or community institution.

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time 6

    Collections and databases 5

    Local help

    Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
    Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026