Son of a Baptist minister, Terry Christopherson and his family started visiting First Baptist as early as the 1960s when in Battle Lake on summer vacations. For the last quarter century, Terry has served as pianist/soloist for the church and currently is worship leader as well.

The First Baptist Church is on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 2025. Designed by prominent Minnesota architect Warren B. Dunnell in 1893, the building is notable for its architecture and is an excellent example of Gothic Revival style.

Dunnell is best known for designing several of the state’s largest institutions including the Fergus Falls State Hospital, the Pillsbury Academy at Owatonna, and the Minnesota Soldiers Home in Minneapolis. Prior to opening his architectural practice, he studied at the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, one of the premier architecture schools in the world.

You’re probably asking two questions: how did a Baptist church end up in Battle Lake anyway? And how did such a prominent architect come to design this Gothic Revival church in rural Minnesota? Chapel Car Evangelism may be the answer to the first question. The Minnesota Baptist State Convention organized in 1859 in the Cities. One way to promote the establishment of Baptist congregations across the state was through dedicated railway cars that traveled along the rail system, conducting services. Many Baptist churches are reported to have begun their ministry in this manner, including ones in Battle Lake, Bemidji, and Little Falls.

The answer to the second question—how a famous architect found his way to Battle Lake—is a mystery. It’s possible that Dunnell’s name became known because of his work designing the state hospital in Fergus Falls. Or perhaps it was through his father, who was head of Minnesota Baptist Convention at one time and prominent in the state legislature. No one knows for sure.

However it happened, the Baptist congregation that established itself in 1883 built this lovely church 10 years later. Since the building’s dedication on December 10, 1893, the people of First Baptist have shared the Good News on Sundays and lovingly maintained this “Little Brown Church on the Hill.”