St. John Missionary Baptist Church formed in the spring of 1882 after a group of women led by Missouri Brown began a Sunday school and later organized a new church. Its first building also served as a school and became a center for all denominations, and Reverend Morris Anderson of Gainesville was the first pastor. The original building was replaced in 1941 with a one-room structure on the site of today's church. Under Rev. H.B. Allen, an auditorium was added in 1947, and in 1951 a brick structure replaced the old church. The church is the only predominantly African American church in the area and has served the community for over a century.