Old First Orange Baptist Church was organized on September 20, 1857, as the earliest known religious establishment in Orange County. Its charter members were Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Finch, Mr. and Mrs. Fietus Finch, Josh Harmon, Aion Ashworth, Henry Humble, and F.A. Burton. David D. Foreman (Forman) of the Louisiana Baptist Association helped organize the church and served as its first pastor. The congregation first met in a small schoolhouse near 37th and South Streets, but an 1865 hurricane destroyed that structure. F.A. Burton helped direct construction of a new sanctuary in a grove of sweet gum trees near what later became U.S. Highway 90. Around 1892, that building was torn down and reconstructed at the church's present site after Joshua Cole deeded an acre of land to the church. F.A. Burton remained a member from the church's beginning until his death in 1925, a span of sixty-eight years, and records show that he served as pastor from 1869 to 1871 and again from 1880 until 1887. Over the years, additional acreage was added to the property, and structures on the site were added and modified. In September 2005, Hurricane Rita swept through the area and destroyed the sanctuary, the second time a hurricane had caused the congregation to lose it. Another structure was completed on the same site in May 2007. Mission and community outreach have been important to the church, including helping build churches in seventeen states and repairing area homes after hurricanes.