Beaver Dam Baptist Church

Front: By the 1890s, residents of this section of Marlboro County organized Beaver Dam Baptist Church. Also known as Cross Roads Church, they first met west of here at a place off Old River Road, near the Pee Dee River. Members held burials at a cemetery near that site until the 1990s. The church’s first pastor was Rev. Benjamin Franklin Humphrey. Its name is taken from nearby Beaver Dam Creek. Reverse: For many years, the church supported a public school for African Americans known as Beaver Dam or Irby Colored School. By 1917, the church had moved to a nearby 1½-ac. lot off Brickyard Road. The original building at this site was likely replaced by the current church, a wood frame building later veneered with concrete block. The church was damaged by a major tornado in 1984 but survived.