The community of Monticello dates from the 1850s and was named for Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. A post office was established on May 5, 1857, with Cicero J. Corder as the first postmaster, and later postmaster Theodore Stiewig operated a steam mill that was the community's largest business. Although the settlement remained small, by the 1890s it had stores, blacksmiths, two mills, two gins, a brick factory, and a school. The community historically supported Monticello Baptist and Spring Hill churches, and the minutes of the Rehoboth Baptist Association first referenced Monticello Baptist Church in 1878, when E. Blanton was pastor and J.W. Barrow and E.Y. Bynum were messengers to the association meeting. The church first met on Bynum's land, and in 1919 the congregation moved to this site on one acre sold by W.P. and Stella Jones, where a new church building was erected soon afterward. The wood-frame sanctuary is a cross-gabled T-plan building with paired double-hung wood windows and shiplap wood siding. Congregation members donated pine trees, hauled by mule-drawn wagons to Will Taylor's planing mill to be sawed into lumber, and about 19 members worked on the church during three months of construction completed in November 1919. Since its founding, the church has been a spiritual and social center for the community. During the 1950s, members sewed quilts donated to the Texarkana Baptist Orphanage and the Lena Pope Home for orphans in Fort Worth. By the early 21st century, area land was being used for recreational lakes and lignite mining, and the church was one of the few historic resources remaining in Monticello; the congregation remains active although services are held infrequently.