Bethlehem Baptist Church built ca. 1903, this vernacular Gothic Revival Church has a basic cruciform profile with the front gabled projecting central block flanked by recessed square entrance towers: the right one a tall shingled pyramid, and the left a tapering rectangular tower with lancet windows and low hipped roof. The tower spires retain their original coverings while the central block displays brick veneer placed in the 1950s on the original weatherboard. The original shingled left steeple cap was destroyed by a tornado some years ago. Gothic doors-and in the flanking towers, Gothic windows-and a front gable oculus are original. Organized in 1868 and chartered in 1872, the Bethlehem Baptist Church began when the black congregation drew out of the all- white Newberry First Baptist Church. The congregation’s first house of worship stood where the Columbia, Newberry and Laurens Freight Warehouse now stands. A printed history of the church was written in 1937 by then pastor, the Reverend E.E. Gaul den. The church has been an important spiritual center in the life of the black community and provided the leadership of that community in civil rights implementation during the 1950s and 60s.