Founded in the late 1800′s by Reverend John (Jack) H. Yates, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church is located in Freedmen’s Town, a post Civil War Houston neighborhood founded by freed slaves. The Church has had three sanctuaries on the same site with the earliest constructed in the 1890′s.The first was a wood framed structure that blew down as a result of the 1900 “Great Storm” in Galveston. The second wood framed structure was erected in the early 1900′s & had a 40 foot tower. Enlarged & constructed of brick in 1949-50, the third sanctuary was designed by James M. Thomas, a prominent architect of African American churches. In January 2005, a fire gutted the interior of the historic structure. In 2009, the City of Houston provided emergency wall stabilization & minor structural repairs due to the unsafe conditions of the building. The city also purchased the property in order to preserve the church’s façade & provide park space for the community. The goal of the project was to pay tribute to Bethel’s significant history & architecture as well as the history of the Fourth Ward. The current Bethel Park project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2013.