Passion project: Local man on mission to save historic First Baptist Church
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Ripped-up carpets and floorboards can be seen inside the sanctuary of the former First Baptist Church of Lake Charles building. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
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David Shamieh believes the sanctuary's organ is the second-largest one ever built in the United States. On either side of the church's altar are where the pipes are located behind wood paneling. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
3/11
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The church pipe organ still works, said David Shamieh. 'The humidity in the building, though, is not good for the pipes.' (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
4/11
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A stained glass skylight that hangs over the center of the sanctuary is mostly intact, though some of the smaller pieces have cracks. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
5/11
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Inside the sanctuary, plaster finish is damaged and flaking off the walls, stained glass-wrapped columns have been broken. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
6/11
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Wooden pews are splitting because of the humidity and moisture making its way in through the still-plywood-covered windows. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
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The church's cornerstone remains visible to visitors. The church was organized on Jan. 25, 1880, and the cornerstone for their building was dedicated Feb. 12, 1908, according to American Press archives. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
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David Shamieh said construction workers found this painting — signed 'Pray with faith' Kent 1971 — in a room that had been previously used as a storage closet. He said shelving lined with paint cans blocked the mural from view. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
9/11
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Marble flooring tiles now line what was the life center. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
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Marble flooring tiles now line what was the life center. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
11/11
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The former life center and gymnasium have been converted into a rental event center called The Royal. Identical wooden flooring that matched what was the basketball court was brought in to repair damaged slats and the floor was sanded and restained. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press)
It's been 1,752 days since Hurricane Laura struck the former First Baptist Church in the historic district of downtown Lake Charles.
The storm caused millions of dollars in damage to the church's sanctuary, stained glass entryway and skylight, air conditioning system, roof, educational building, life center and fellowship hall.
But what, for many, would be a project too overwhelming to take on, David Shamieh has been undeterred.
In negotiations to purchase the already vacant 100,000 square-foot structure before the hurricane hit, Shamieh stuck with his original goal of bringing new life to what he considers 'holy and sacred' ground.
'I love old buildings and I cannot see something like this torn down,' he said. 'I have the philosophy in life if you don't have a history, you don't have a present, you're not going to have a future. This building — doesn't matter how much money you have — you would never be able to build this same building again. The structure is amazing.'
The church has 'good bones,' he said.
There is no insurance on the building — as no insurance company has been willing to provide coverage for the property after a tornado hit the area in 2024. All of the repairs since have been paid out of pocket by Shamieh. The owner of One Source Digital Technologies, Shamieh has devoted much of his free time to restoring and maintaining the building, pouring his heart into every detail of its structure.
'If I can, I want to bring it back to the original design, identical,' Shamieh said. 'I could pay $50,000 and put in a big glass out front with a little bit of design where the stained glass was but that's not what I want. This church is too important to thousands of people in Lake Charles.'
Shamieh said his goal is to restore the church and then pass it on to another church body who will make their own memories inside it. Two churches are interested, he said, but only if the construction is complete.
'I want to do something good for this community,' he said.
He also wants to see the church listed on the National Historic Registry, but is asking for the public's help in finding the church's original blueprints.
'We're struggling to find any of the records and exact measurements,' he said. While progress to the sanctuary is on hold as that information is being gathered, work is complete on what was the church's life center and gymnasium. Those areas are detached from the sanctuary building.
Now both spaces serve as part of The Royal event center, which has already hosted several weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, graduation celebrations and even an Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy.
'We wanted to give the community something really, really, really nice,' he said.
What was the nursery is now the bridal suite and the former art room is the groom's suite.
He's also planning a cigar area and cocktail lounge and is nearing the finish line in the remodel of the church's educational building and adjacent counseling center. One section of the educational building is being used by the Calcasieu Council on Aging.
Some of the former Sunday school classrooms have been converted into conference rooms available for rent.
Love for
Lake Charles
A native of Palestine, Shamieh moved to the United States to attend McNeese State University nearly 18 years ago.
Shamieh said he fell in love with Lake Charles as a student and never left.
'I fell in love with 'Southern Hospitality ,' ' he said. 'This city has given me so much and that's why I want to save this church.'
Shamieh said the church had been listed for sale for two years before Hurricane Laura struck. Portions of it were already in disrepair.
Hurricane Laura caused more. The storm's winds — recorded at 150 mph at landfall — tore apart the intricate stone and stained glass design over the doors at the Pujo Street main entrance. It also ripped off a piece of the iconic stone statue of an open Bible that had been in front of the stained glass.
'The attention to details in this building is magnificent,' he said. 'I've never seen anything like it. It's unbelievable.'
The stone design that was mixed with the stained glass outside carried over to the inside. The pattern can be found in the staircase rail to the church balcony, on the ends of each pew, and wrapped around the columns that provide muted light during services.
'We used the same pattern of the crown in The Royal sign,' he said.
Though plywood is in place where the stained glass was, humidity still finds its way inside and has caused some of the arm rails in the wooden pews to split.
Shamieh believes the sanctuary's organ is the second-largest one ever built in the United States. On either side of the church's altar are where the pipes are located.
'It needs to be tuned, but it still works,' Shamieh said. 'The humidity in the b uilding, though, is not good for the pipes.'
There's much to do in the sanctuary, but Shamieh has pushed the pause button.
'I don't want to work on the sanctuary until it is listed on the historic registry,' he said. 'It's important to make these restorations according to their standards. This is not just a building to me.'
And it's not the first historic building he's restored. In Palestine, he restored an 18th century three-story stone home. The first two floors are living space and the bottom floor was where animals were kept.
'It's a very significant place. In the Bible, when Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem they rested under the fig tree near spring water before going back to Nazareth. This is the place.'
Though he travels to see family in Palestine when he can, Shamieh said his home is Lake Charles.
'I'm lucky. I have two mothers — the born mother country and the adopted mother country,' he said. 'This is my home. My parents are here and that's a blessing.'
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Washington Post
2 days ago
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Rebuilding one of the nation's oldest Black churches to begin at Juneteenth ceremony
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A ceremonial groundbreaking will be held Thursday for the rebuilding of one of the nation's oldest Black churches , whose congregants first gathered outdoors in secret before constructing a wooden meetinghouse in Virginia. The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg officially established itself in 1776, although parishioners met before then in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating. Free and enslaved members erected the original church house around 1805, laying the foundation with recycled bricks. Reconstructing the 16-foot by 32-foot (5-meter by 10-meter) building will help demonstrate that 'Black history is American history,' First Baptist Pastor Reginald F. Davis told The Associated Press before the Juneteenth groundbreaking. 'Oral history is one thing but to have an image to go along with the oral history makes a greater impact on the psyche of oppressed people,' said Davis, who leads the current 215-member congregation in a 20th Century church that is less than a mile from the original site. 'Black Americans have been part of this nation's history before and since the Declaration of Independence.' The original building was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. First Baptist's second structure, built in 1856, stood there for a century. But the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum, bought the property in 1956 and turned the space into a parking lot. Colonial Williamsburg had covered the costs of building First Baptist's current church house. But for decades it failed to tell the church's pioneering history and the stories of other colonial Black Americans. In recent years, the museum has placed a growing emphasis on telling a more complete story about the nation's founding. Colonial Williamsburg's rebuilding of the church is an opportunity to tell Black history and resurrect the stories of those who originally built it. Rebuilding First Baptist's original meetinghouse will fill an important historical gap, while bolstering the museum's depiction of Virginia's 18th century capital through interpreters and restored buildings. More than half of the 2,000 people who lived in Williamsburg at the time were Black, many of them enslaved. Rev. James Ingram is an interpreter who has for 27 years portrayed Gowan Pamphlet, First Baptists' pastor when the original church structure was built. Pamphlet was an enslaved tavern worker who followed his calling to preach, sermonizing equality, despite the laws that prohibited large gatherings of African Americans out of fear of slave uprisings. 'He is a precursor to someone like Frederick Douglass, who would be the precursor to someone like Martin Luther King Jr.,' Ingram said. 'Gowan Pamphlet was leading the charge.' The museum's archaeologists uncovered the original church's foundation in 2021 , prompting Pastor Davis to say then that it was 'a rediscovery of the humanity of a people.' 'This helps to erase the historical and social amnesia that has afflicted this country for so many years,' he said. The archaeologists also located 62 graves , while experts examined three sets of remains and linked them to the congregation. Scientists at William & Mary's Institute for Historical Biology said the teeth of a Black male in his teens indicated some kind of stress, such as malnutrition or disease. 'It either represents the conditions of an enslaved childhood or far less likely — but possibly — conditions for a free African American in childhood,' Michael Blakey, the institute's director, said in 2023 . In the early 1800s, the congregation acquired the property for the original church from a local white merchant. The land was low, soft and often soggy — hardly ideal for building, said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's executive director of archaeology. But the church's congregants, many of whom were skilled tradespeople, made it work by flipping bricks on their side and making other adjustments to lay a level foundation. 'It was a marvel that they were able to build a structure there, but also that the structure persists and even grows bigger,' Gary said, adding that the church was later expanded. Based on their excavation, archaeologists surmise there was no heat source, such as a fireplace, no glass in the windows and no plaster finish, Gary said. About 50 people could have sat comfortably inside, possibly 100 if they were standing. The congregation numbered about 500, which included people on surrounding plantations. Services likely occurred outside the church as well. White planters and business owners were often aware of the large gatherings, which technically were banned, while there's documentary evidence of some people getting caught, Gary said. Following Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, which killed more than 50 white people in Virginia's Southampton County, the congregation was led by white pastors, though it was Black preachers doing the work, Gary said. The tornado destroyed the structure a few years later. The museum is rebuilding the 1805 meetinghouse at its original site and will use common wood species from the time: pine, poplar and oak, said Matthew Webster, the museum's executive director of architectural preservation and research. The boards are already being cut. Construction is expected to finish next year. The windows will have shutters but no glass, Webster said, while a concrete beam will support the new church directly over its original foundation, preserving the bricks. 'When we build the earliest part of the church, we will put bricks on their sides and will lay them in that strange way because that tells the story of those individuals struggling to quickly get their church up,' Webster said. 'And then when we build the addition, it will be this formal foundation that really shows the establishment of the church.' Janice Canaday, who traces her lineage to First Baptist, said Williamsburg's Black community never forgot its original location or that its graves were paved over in the 1950s. 'They will never be able to expunge us from the landscape,' said Canaday, who is also the museum's African American community engagement manager. 'It doesn't matter if you take out the building. It doesn't matter if you ban books. You will never be able to pull that root up because that root is so deep.'
Associated Press
2 days ago
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Rebuilding one of the nation's oldest Black churches to begin at Juneteenth ceremony
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — A ceremonial groundbreaking will be held Thursday for the rebuilding of one of the nation's oldest Black churches, whose congregants first gathered outdoors in secret before constructing a wooden meetinghouse in Virginia. The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg officially established itself in 1776, although parishioners met before then in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating. Free and enslaved members erected the original church house around 1805, laying the foundation with recycled bricks. Reconstructing the 16-foot by 32-foot (5-meter by 10-meter) building will help demonstrate that 'Black history is American history,' First Baptist Pastor Reginald F. Davis told The Associated Press before the Juneteenth groundbreaking. 'Oral history is one thing but to have an image to go along with the oral history makes a greater impact on the psyche of oppressed people,' said Davis, who leads the current 215-member congregation in a 20th Century church that is less than a mile from the original site. 'Black Americans have been part of this nation's history before and since the Declaration of Independence.' The original building was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. First Baptist's second structure, built in 1856, stood there for a century. But the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum, bought the property in 1956 and turned the space into a parking lot. Colonial Williamsburg had covered the costs of building First Baptist's current church house. But for decades it failed to tell the church's pioneering history and the stories of other colonial Black Americans. In recent years, the museum has placed a growing emphasis on telling a more complete story about the nation's founding. Colonial Williamsburg's rebuilding of the church is an opportunity to tell Black history and resurrect the stories of those who originally built it. Telling Virginia's untold story Rebuilding First Baptist's original meetinghouse will fill an important historical gap, while bolstering the museum's depiction of Virginia's 18th century capital through interpreters and restored buildings. More than half of the 2,000 people who lived in Williamsburg at the time were Black, many of them enslaved. Rev. James Ingram is an interpreter who has for 27 years portrayed Gowan Pamphlet, First Baptists' pastor when the original church structure was built. Pamphlet was an enslaved tavern worker who followed his calling to preach, sermonizing equality, despite the laws that prohibited large gatherings of African Americans out of fear of slave uprisings. 'He is a precursor to someone like Frederick Douglass, who would be the precursor to someone like Martin Luther King Jr.,' Ingram said. 'Gowan Pamphlet was leading the charge.' The museum's archaeologists uncovered the original church's foundation in 2021, prompting Pastor Davis to say then that it was 'a rediscovery of the humanity of a people.' 'This helps to erase the historical and social amnesia that has afflicted this country for so many years,' he said. The archaeologists also located 62 graves, while experts examined three sets of remains and linked them to the congregation. Scientists at William & Mary's Institute for Historical Biology said the teeth of a Black male in his teens indicated some kind of stress, such as malnutrition or disease. 'It either represents the conditions of an enslaved childhood or far less likely — but possibly — conditions for a free African American in childhood,' Michael Blakey, the institute's director, said in 2023. 'It was a marvel' In the early 1800s, the congregation acquired the property for the original church from a local white merchant. The land was low, soft and often soggy — hardly ideal for building, said Jack Gary, Colonial Williamsburg's executive director of archaeology. But the church's congregants, many of whom were skilled tradespeople, made it work by flipping bricks on their side and making other adjustments to lay a level foundation. 'It was a marvel that they were able to build a structure there, but also that the structure persists and even grows bigger,' Gary said, adding that the church was later expanded. Based on their excavation, archaeologists surmise there was no heat source, such as a fireplace, no glass in the windows and no plaster finish, Gary said. About 50 people could have sat comfortably inside, possibly 100 if they were standing. The congregation numbered about 500, which included people on surrounding plantations. Services likely occurred outside the church as well. White planters and business owners were often aware of the large gatherings, which technically were banned, while there's documentary evidence of some people getting caught, Gary said. Following Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831, which killed more than 50 white people in Virginia's Southampton County, the congregation was led by white pastors, though it was Black preachers doing the work, Gary said. The tornado destroyed the structure a few years later. Boards are being cut The museum is rebuilding the 1805 meetinghouse at its original site and will use common wood species from the time: pine, poplar and oak, said Matthew Webster, the museum's executive director of architectural preservation and research. The boards are already being cut. Construction is expected to finish next year. The windows will have shutters but no glass, Webster said, while a concrete beam will support the new church directly over its original foundation, preserving the bricks. 'When we build the earliest part of the church, we will put bricks on their sides and will lay them in that strange way because that tells the story of those individuals struggling to quickly get their church up,' Webster said. 'And then when we build the addition, it will be this formal foundation that really shows the establishment of the church.' Janice Canaday, who traces her lineage to First Baptist, said Williamsburg's Black community never forgot its original location or that its graves were paved over in the 1950s. 'They will never be able to expunge us from the landscape,' said Canaday, who is also the museum's African American community engagement manager. 'It doesn't matter if you take out the building. It doesn't matter if you ban books. You will never be able to pull that root up because that root is so deep.'
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Volunteers plant new marsh grass to re-establish healthy habitat in Cameron
1/8 Swipe or click to see more Mickey McMillin said he's always had an interest in volunteering — particularly for Ducks Unlimited. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 2/8 Swipe or click to see more Yana Allen, a member of the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter who volunteered to plant mash grass in Cameron Parish, said the state "has my heart and soul." (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 3/8 Swipe or click to see more Melissa Fusilier was scrolling on Facebook and saw something about 'Protecting the Coastline.' She said she clicked on it, saw the event, and decided to take the day off of work to volunteer planting. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 4/8 Swipe or click to see more Gardner Goodall, native plants program manager for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, plants spartina alterniflora in an area of degraded marsh east of Calcasieu Lake. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 5/8 Swipe or click to see more A volunteer plants marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 6/8 Swipe or click to see more A team of 60 volunteers plant marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 7/8 Swipe or click to see more A team of 60 volunteers plant marsh grass in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) 8/8 Swipe or click to see more The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana has planted more than one million plants and grasses since 1988 and returned more than 15 million pounds of shell to the water to create living shorelines. (Ashlyn Little / American Press) The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana recently partnered with Phillips 66 to plant 10,000 plugs of marsh grasses in Cameron Parish. The nonprofit organization recruited as many as 60 members to plant the spartina alterniflora in an area of degraded marsh east of Calcasieu Lake. 'This marsh was heavily degraded during Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020 and today we're putting some plugs back into the ground to re-establish some healthy marsh that'll be really important for nursery habitat, for fish, birds and wildlife and also storm surge protection,' Gardner Goodall, native plants program manager at CRCL, said. Goodall spent the weekend in the marsh helping to plant the grasses. In order to plant the grass, the volunteers took stems or plugs of grass and stuck it into the mud. Goodall said the top of the mud feels softer, but the deeper you get it becomes more like clay. The firmer the mud gets is where the grass was to be planted. 'The idea is that all these roots will spread into the ground and will fill in the missing spots in the marsh,' he said. Once it's in the mud you give it a little pull at the top to make sure it's in the mud well planted, he said. 'It's really nice to be out here with some sportsman that really can appreciate the value of this habitat and are working so closely and intimately with the landscape. I was learning last night at the camp about all the different types of ducks that come here from all over the world, from Mexico to Canada, to use these abundant wetlands for refuge,' Goodall said. This project will help protect communities and industry alike in Southwest Louisiana, and it's an easy, fun opportunity for people to get involved in protecting the coast, Goodall said. The grasses were planted in an area impacted by the Cameron-Creole Freshwater Introduction project. The freshwater diversion, completed in 2022, has reduced salinity levels in the watershed and improved the overall health of the marsh. 'The project allows for freshwater to come back into this area and have more flow through here,' Goodall explained. Some of the volunteers consisted of members from the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter out of Lake Charles, Phillips 66, Royal Engineering and a couple of volunteers who saw the event on Facebook. Yana Allen, a member of the Louisiana Master Naturalist Chapter, saw the event on Facebook and thought it was a great opportunity. 'I've lived in a lot of states and I have to say out of all of them, Louisiana has my heart and soul,' Allen said. Melissa Fusilier was scrolling on Facebook and saw something about 'Protecting the Coastline.' She said she clicked on it, saw the event, and decided to take the day off of work to volunteer planting. 'I'm an outdoors woman. I love to fish and hunt and it's just my part of giving back. I've loved Louisiana, I've lived here my whole life and I'm happy to be here,' Fusilier said. Mickey McMillin is a retired plumbing contractor who said he's always had an interest in volunteering — particularly for Ducks Unlimited. McMillin said Louisiana is a duck-hunting state and more ducks are killed in Cameron Parish than the whole Atlantic Flyway. 'By doing this planting today and restoring the marsh back to something that the birds can use and if the birds are here then the hunters will be here, which brings people here,' McMillin said. A mile of marsh is expected to stop a foot of storm surge. 'It's protecting our culture, and it's also creating a line of defense for inland communities, so it's like a win-win for everybody to restore this marsh area,' Donna Betzer, developmental director for CRCL, said. Goodall said it was inspiring to work with people who are so passionate about the state and were 'willing to get knee deep in the marsh to help, as well.' 'What we do here is great and important, but it's really about changing people's minds at the end of the day to think about the importance of coastal restoration projects on a large scale and the funding needed for those,' he said. Coastal wetlands are a natural compound of hurricane protection in the state, helping to weaken storms and absorb storm surge. The state has had about 2,000 square miles of wetlands disappear into open water in less than a century. 'This is good for storm surge protection, hurricane rehabilitation, and also for our hunters and fisherman that live out here in Southwest Louisiana — it's a full life cycle project,' Megan Hartman, regional public affairs director for Phillips 66, said. CRCL has planted more than one million plants and grasses since 1988 and returned more than 15 million pounds of shell to the water to create living shorelines. The organization also trains college students through its Future Coastal Leaders program and educates professionals through the Coastal Leadership Institute.
