In April 1898, forty-seven members organized themselves into the Calvary Baptist Church, which eventually became Bowmar Avenue Baptist Church. The church was organized in a store on Cherry Street near the Jewish Temple with Rev. W.A. Hewitt, a student at Mississippi College, as the first pastor. He served until the close of that year.
After a committee from the State Baptist Convention Board met with the pastors of Calvary and the First Baptist Church, the location of a house of worship was selected on the corner of Clay and Adams Streets in Vicksburg, MS. With the help of the State Mission Board, a building was erected with a pastor's home nearby.
From the beginning, the majority of its members thought that the church was not properly located, and with the passing of time this conviction seemed to grow stronger. On October 5, 1913, the Calvary Baptist Church dissolved, transferring by deed all properties to the Baptist Mission Board, with the understanding that all assets were to be used in the erection of another house of worship for Baptists in south Vicksburg. During the first fifteen years of existence, eight ministers served Calvary Church as pastor.
One week later, on October 12, 1913, in agreement with the State Convention Board of Mississippi, a Baptist Church was organized in the east end of a mission building owned by the Episcopalians on Bowmar Avenue. Thirty-eight members from Calvary and others joined to make the forty-one charter members in the church, which was named Bowmar Avenue Baptist Church.
Reverend Terry White, has been Senior Pastor of Bowmar since December 1991. Bowmar continued to grow and in the mid-90’s the church voted to re-locate. In 1996, 43 acres of land were purchased on U.S. 61 South where the current campus and worship center is located.
