After fire destroys sanctuary, landmark Dallas church mourns what’s lost

The red brick exterior walls of First Baptist Dallas Church were charred black Saturday morning, and while they were still intact, along with the steeple at the front of the historic building, there was no sanctuary inside. The roof, windows and interior were gone. And the smell of smoke lingered.

Larry Smith and his wife, Rita, two members of the church, drove 20 miles from Arlington, Texas, to see for themselves the devastation of the previous night’s fire. Other members also gathered outside.

Mrs. Smith wiped tears from her eyes with a tissue as she spoke of the sanctuary, with its dark wooden pews and ornate carvings. There was a library in the church, she said, along with a print shop and the offices of former pastors. “There’s a lot of history in that building,” she said. Mr. Smith began talking about what had been lost when he stopped and looked at the smoldering remains.

Church members and other Dallas-area residents mourned Saturday over the extensive damage to the sanctuary, a landmark in the heart of Dallas where many members of the megachurch have been baptized, married and memorialized.

On Friday night, the fire that collapsed the church roof grew to a four-alarm blaze, sending smoke plumes across the city. More than 60 firefighters responded to the scene.

No injuries or fatalities were reported, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue. The fire started in the old part of the church’s sprawling complex, where main Sunday services are no longer held but which has been in use since it was built in 1890.

Church officials said it was fortunate that the fire started shortly after the end of a summer Bible school attended by 2,000 children. It is too early to know whether the sanctuary can be rebuilt, church officials said.

“We’ll have to see if we try to recreate it or do something different,” the church’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, said in an interview Friday.

Mr. Jeffress is known as one of former President Donald J. Trump’s most outspoken evangelical supporters. On Sunday, he attributed Mr. Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally to God’s providence.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Capt. Robert Borse said Saturday afternoon that the cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the investigation, he said. An official with the ATF’s Dallas Field Division said it is standard practice for the agency to assist with fires that occur at churches and businesses.

The first Baptist church in Dallas was Founded in 1868, just a few decades after Dallas itself was founded. It began with a congregation of 11 people. Today, it has 16,000 members and a campus that spans several blocks of downtown Dallas. On a typical weekend, thousands of people flock to the church for services, and millions more watch online, according to church officials.

The stone shrine is surrounded by skyscrapers, parking garages and new residential buildings, a testament to how the city has grown around the building. Less than a mile away, a replica log cabin shows how John Neely Bryan built the city’s first house on the site in the 1840s.

Seven years after the historic sanctuary was built, George Truett became pastor of the church and served in that role for nearly 50 years. He was once asked by President Woodrow Wilson to speak to troops overseas during World War I.

Five presidents have visited the church, according to Ben Lovvorn, the executive pastor. Other notable visitors include former Vice President Mike Pence and Billy Graham, who was a member of First Baptist Dallas for 55 years.

Clint Pressley, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, compared the Dallas fire to the 2019 fire that destroyed the roof and spire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

“If the SBC had a Notre Dame, it would be” First Baptist, Mr. Pressley wrote on X. “This is heartbreaking.”

Dallas County Chief Judge Clay Jenkins recounted the speech he gave at the sanctuary after a near-fatal car crash in 1993, when he was 29 years old.

“It’s always sad to see such an iconic historic site burn down,” he said.

In 2013, First Baptist completed a $135 million project restoration of the campus, including the construction of a 178,000-square-foot house of worship with a stadium-style video screen and enough seating for 3,000 people.

Mark Lamster, an architecture critic for The Dallas Morning News and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, said the campus’ design integrates private space into the public cityscape, such that passersby can cross the complex via a footbridge that belongs to the church but is clearly not private property.

“They invade public space,” Mr. Lamster said of the architecture, noting a parallel between the design and the church’s “evangelical need” to spread Christianity.

Before the fire, the old shrine was still used for weddings, funerals and religious services led by a marching band.

“A lot of people were touched by the Lord in that building,” said Mr. Lovvorn, the executive pastor, adding that his family had been part of the church for five generations and that he had grown up sitting in the sanctuary.

Light smoke continued to rise from the shrine’s collapsed interior on Saturday afternoon, and one fire truck remained on the scene. But the crowd of onlookers had largely disappeared.

Church officials said a Sunday service would still be held, but it would be held at the Dallas Convention Center, which is within walking distance of the church.

“Just as we have done for the past 150 years, we will pray in downtown Dallas,” Mr. Lovvorn said.

Ruth Graham And Hank Sanders contributed to the reporting.