TEXARKANA, Texas - Compared to slightly more then a year ago, First Baptist Church Texarkana now looks more like a New Jerusalem, both from an interior and exterior standpoint.
After 13 months of near continuous work, following the March 8, 2020, fire, this $23 million renovation project has reached its finish line.
A Good Friday Service is being held at 7 p.m. today in the newly reconstructed Worship Center and all are invited, church leadership says.
Earlier this week, FBC Building Supervisor Dwayne Mitchell said small paint touch-ups and small repairs were about all that was left to complete.
"We had some weather-related delays, during last month's snow storm, but that didn't really slow things down, except for about a week," Mitchell said.
The fire destroyed the church's entire media area along with causing extensive smoke and soot damage to the sanctuary, several Sunday School classrooms, staff offices, the print shop, choir room, music office and other meeting rooms.
Shortly after the fire, the pandemic forced church visitors and church members to meet for several weeks online. Then from Mother's Day on, church services started being held in the building's gym as well as in its atrium. During this same time period, sheet-rock removal and other post-fire demolition efforts had to be conducted in the worship center's interior, along with rooms connected to it.
Repairs, remodeling and reconstruction started in June and lasted up to this week. The effort included new interior lighting installation along with ceiling and duct work re-installments, as well as replacing most of the building's outside facade, fronting Moores Lane.
By November, Associate Pastor Larry Sims noted, in his weekly News For The Generations column, that two large sections had to be cut into the building's facade to allow for the dispose of smoke damaged items. It also allowed for reconstruction supplies, along with heating and air conditioning units to be moved into the worship center - a place at the time filled with scaffolding needed for ceiling replacement.
By mid-January, duct work and rewiring had been completed and most of the inside painting had been done, as well as a new sprinkler system added.
More then 30 air conditioning units were installed. Scaffolding then came down, which paved the way for carpet and new seating, organ placement and sound system testing.
During the last few weeks, the replacing of 2,350 seats along with new carpet made the worship center recovery basically complete.
"The process has generally been smooth, without much work being missed because of COVID-19," Mitchell said. "God has really blessed us."