First Baptist Church of Lowell began as the Bloomington Baptist Church in 1868, with W.E. Green as its first pastor. After a tornado destroyed most of Bloomington, the building was moved to Lowell. Years later, an addition covered a basement dug by hand with picks and plows, while heavy dirt, much of it clay, was hauled out in dirt slips pulled by mules and horses, and the cement walls were mixed and poured by hand with shovels, buckets, and wheelbarrows. Long a center of community activity, the church remained in constant use until 2005, when it was torn down and replaced by a youth ministry building, and the site continued as a hub of youthful church activity without a basement.