BETH EDEN / BETHEDEN MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH / CROSS ROADS BAPTIST CHURCH (ORIGINAL)

This church was organized in 1882 or 1883 as Beth Eden Missionary Baptist Church. Its trustees at the time were W. P. Roberts, J. E. Jones, and Rev. R. A. Patterson. It is shown as the "Betheton C.H. M.B" [Church, Missionary Baptist] on the 1891 Tate map of Orange County.

When the congregation outgrew its original church building (it may have been log?), a new wood frame church building was erected circa 1910 and the name was changed to Cross Roads Baptist Church within a few years.

In 1949, the circa 1910 structure was enlarged, with an addition of five classrooms to the structure's rear; it was demolished circa 1965.

The church's cemetery is still extant: cemeterycensus.com/nc/orng/cem014.htm (the cemetery is where the original circa 1883 structure was located; the circa 1910 church was located to its south). The cemetery may have predated the church, however.

In 1953 a brick parsonage was built to the north west of the original church on present-day Orange Grove Road. In 1964 an educational building was constructed. In 1965-66 the newer, brick church structure was built, which was dedicated on September 18, 1966.

The 1910 church in the 1960s (sketch from a Cross Roads Baptist Church cookbook)

Circa 1966

The original church site/cemetery, view west (via Google Streetview, 2007)

Sources:

Deed book/page: 50/39, 157/133, 157/135, 184/181

Cross Roads Baptist Church cookbook, 1965.

Cross Roads Baptist Church's Facebook page.