Church built on family foundation

Published 12:27 am Thursday, March 10, 2011

Edith White (center) lays a brick Wednesday as part of the $2 million building and renovation project at Washington’s First Baptist Church as Ken Borunda (left) and Eleazar R. Campos assist. (WDN Photo/Mike Voss)

Edith White, 92, is not a brick mason, but there is a good reason she laid a brick as part of the expansion project at Washington’s First Baptist Church on Wednesday.

The reason: to continue somewhat of a family tradition.

White’s grandfather, W.C. Miller, was the contractor for the church’s first sanctuary, completed in 1917 at its present site at the corner of East Main and Harvey streets. Her father, Ned Miller, was the mason for that building project and for the church addition (education building) completed in 1955.

“Daddy laid the first brick and the last brick,” White said. “He laid them on both editions, the first church and the 1955 church.”

“It was nice because I knew they were up there smiling, I know, when they saw me do that,” White said about what it meant to her to lay the brick. “It was nice. It brought back memories.

“I started here when I was in cradle row. That’s when you’re a baby, you know,” White recalled when asked about her earliest memories of the church.

Several church staff and members observed White as she laid a brick on a corner of part of the addition.

“I think it just … connects it with the past and kind of connects our history,” the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jimmy Moore, said when asked about having White lay a brick as part of the masonry work on the addition. “Its sort of a continuity of the vision the people in 1916 had for a church there, and we’re sort of carrying on that and expanding that a little bit.”

Ken Borunda, site superintendent for the project, and Eleazar R. Campos, masonry supervisor, helped White lay the brick.

“It’s amazing to have so much participation from the members out here and especially one whose father and grandfather helped build this church,” Borunda said. “It’s nice to see it go from generation to generation. They’re all helping out.”

Borunda estimated 50,000 bricks would be used to build the addition. A history of the church indicates that at least 287,000 bricks were used to the build the 1917 church building.

An eulogy about W.C. Miller delivered by Edward Jenkins on May 4, 1949, included these words:

“Mr. W.C. Miller gave the work his personal attention from the laying of the first brick till the laying of the last one and from the first driving of a nail to the last one, and from the first (trowel) of plaster to the last one and from the beginning till the last dollar was paid.. Mr. Miller gave his personal attention to the work from early in the morning till sunset. He took great pride in the erection of the house of God in that part of his moral vineyard. Like (Nehemiah) of old he almost slept on the place as he gave so much of his attention by day and by night to the completion of the work. Bro. Miller did not charge a certain amount for his work as contractor and it was some years afterward (before) he was fully paid for his services.”

Last fall, the church broke ground for the $2 million building and renovation project.

The project includes the addition of a children’s wing, new adult Sunday-school classrooms, a dedicated youth area, a gathering space next to the sanctuary, chancel renovation, new restrooms, audio-visual  upgrades and an elevator. The entire church facility will be updated to provide accessibility throughout the entire church for people with handicaps.

A.R. Chesson Construction Co. of Williamston is the contractor for the project, scheduled for completion in June 2011.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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