Talk:St. John Baptist Church (Lecompte, Louisiana)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the St. John Baptist Church (Lecompte, Louisiana) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article is rated Stub-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

United States: Louisiana Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Louisiana portal This article is supported by WikiProject Louisiana (assessed as Low-importance).
	This article has been automatically rated by a bot or other tool as Stub-class because it uses a stub template. Please ensure the assessment is correct before removing the `\|auto=` parameter.

National Register of Historic Places Low‑importance

	National Register of Historic Places portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject National Register of Historic Places, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of U.S. historic sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.National Register of Historic PlacesWikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic PlacesTemplate:WikiProject National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic Places
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

It is requested that an image or photograph of St. John Baptist Church (Lecompte, Louisiana) be included in this article to improve its quality. Please replace this template with a more specific media request template where possible.
Wikipedians in Louisiana may be able to help!
The Free Image Search Tool or Openverse Creative Commons Search may be able to locate suitable images on Flickr and other web sites.

Upload

Baptist church or not

Back in October 2020 User:Arminden noted a question for clarification, which I moved to here: "Is it only called "St. John" (if so: after which St John?), or is it "St. John the Baptist" and the name was "shortened" in order not to repeat the word "Baptist"? *If* the latter: the word "Baptist" that's now part of the article title is about denomination, and like this it's misleading (again, *if* the name is incomplete)."

I think the question was raised because the article posed that the church "is a historic Baptist church", but I believe that is possibly incorrect speculation by Choster who inserted that assertion in this edit.

Unfortunately numerous articles about NRHP-listed places, for which a few fields of cryptic database information have been available, have been created over the years almost from thin air. Editors have made incorrect assumptions on various matters, e.g. whether an associated person was an architect rather than a builder, e.g. whether all buildings on a given property were built at the same time, etc. Here, I think all that was available was the name "St. John Baptist Church" which Choster assumed meant it was a Baptist church, while a different take would have been to assume it is Catholic or another denomination and that the name is short for "St. John the Baptist".

The NRHP document reference, added just now by me, states that "St. John Baptist Church was organized in 1869 as a church for the black residents of Ashton Plantation" and "The present church building was dedicated on November 11, 1888" without giving a denomination or explanation of the church's name.

There is a cemetery behind, mentioned in the NRHP document though not included in the NRHP listed area.

I see this obituary in 2022 mentioning visiting hours given on Saturday, August 06 2022 at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 131 Frankie Smith Rd., Lecompte, LA 71346. I'm not sure if that is this church or a different location.

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

Some location information (see together in OSM map link at right):

There is a St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Alexandria, on Broadway Avenue, at 31°17′50″N 92°26′11″W / 31.297098°N 92.436415°W / 31.297098; -92.436415

There is a St. John Cemetery, on Frankie Smith Rd. at 31°07′51″N 92°24′38″W / 31.130897°N 92.410687°W / 31.130897; -92.410687, just off what Google maps shows as LA 546. This is in "Lamourie" apparently, and there is a building there. I can't tell if it is the listed clapboarded structure that has a tower, or a different building, but with a wide addition to the rear.

"Frankie Smith" seems to be name of multiple segments of roadway, perhaps was or is another name for Louisiana 456. Louisiana 456 runs north-south just to the west of railroad tracks; U.S. Highway 71 and/or U.S. Highway 167 is bigger running north-south on the east side of the railroad. Another location showing in Google maps, further south along 546, as Frankie Smith Rd. is 31°06′39″N 92°24′16″W / 31.110821°N 92.404446°W / 31.110821; -92.404446.

Putting this together, I am thinking there's just one church there, now with an addition to its rear, named "St. John Baptist Church" or St. John Missionary Baptist Church. The Missionary Baptist church on Frankie Smith Drive would be this one, so it is Baptist would be this one, I guess. All this would be confirmed if someone could actually see the church there, but Google streetview and Bing streetside cameras did not go along right there.

--Doncram (talk,contribs) 19:27, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I expanded the intro text, it is true, on the preciously thin basis that it was listed in Category:19th-century Baptist churches. For what it's worth, "History of Louisiana Negro Baptists From 1804 to 1914" by William Hicks does mention that a C.L. Roberts pastored at a St. John church in Lamourie, La. A 1998 article says the church was destroyed by fire, which may explain why the structure next to the cemetery does not match the description. - choster (talk) 23:00, 21 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]