What and where is this Ohio church?

December 26, 2018 8:25 AM

Years ago, a family member of mine inherited a beautiful black-and-white photograph of a large church in Ohio. I've been trying without luck to figure out what church it is, but my Google-fu is failing me. Can you help?

This is the church. I also included close-ups of the sign in front of the church, which is partially obscured but indicates that it's a First Baptist Church with a pastor named Seasholes. The church is on Ohio Route 51 and is next door to a mechanic named Jones & Schnell. Those seem like good clues, but I'm coming up blank. Can you help me figure out exactly where this church is, and its full name?

posted by southern_sky to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Best answer: Could it be this one?
posted by christinetheslp at 8:34 AM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Doing a Google image search of "gothic baptist church ohio" led me to The First Baptist Church of Dayton.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:35 AM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wiki says OH-51 is under 31 miles long. I wonder if you can just use google street view to look for the site? This site can automate that for you.
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 8:38 AM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Route 51 doesn't go through Dayton.
posted by cooker girl at 8:38 AM on December 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: That's it! Thank you so much for solving the mystery, brilliant sleuths!
posted by southern_sky at 8:39 AM on December 26, 2018

Best answer: The original route of State Route 51 was that of current State Route 49 in western Ohio. The route was generally changed from 51 to 49 until the entire route became 49 in 1935.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:44 AM on December 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

That makes more sense!
posted by cooker girl at 8:45 AM on December 26, 2018