The former Four Corners church has moved and grown over the decades
Story and Photos By David Blanchette
JoAnn Stubblefield has been a member of Westfair Baptist Church in Jacksonville for all but six years of its 80-year history.
“When I first started going to church in 1950, we were on Morgan Street … there had once been a hardware store in the building and we had church there,” Stubblefield remembered. “Then they bought the First Presbyterian Church, one of the four churches that used to stand at what was called the Four Corners.”
Stubblefield got married in that Four Corners church building, and then everything changed in 1960.
“That was when the new church was built, it was the new thing coming out. Then over the years they have improved things at the church,” Stubblefield said. “They’ve added the school, it has grown … it’s been a good, solid church.”
Stubblefield and the rest of the 160-plus members commemorated Westfair Baptist Church’s 80th anniversary on Sunday, Oct. 20 with a special 10 a.m. service that featured a message from Steve Brady, who has been involved in Westfair’s ministry in the past. The service also featured a video presentation on the church’s history and messages from people wishing the church a happy anniversary and expressing their feelings about the church’s impact in their lives.
Central Baptist Church, as it was known in 1944, started in a downtown Jacksonville commercial building and was then one of the four churches that once stood at the corner of Church and State streets. The church moved to its present location at 14 Clarke Drive in the early 1960s and took on its current name, Westfair Baptist Church. Westfair Christian Academy opened its doors a few years later and has since offered Christian education to elementary and high school-age students. The church-school complex is known as Westfair Ministries.
“I have been with every pastor who has ever been there … Henry Spencer, Brother Puckett, Bill Daugherty, Brother John, Brother Warren who was there 28 years, Larry Balthis who died of a heart attack, and now Ben Wharton,” Stubblefield recalled. “We are family at the church. We consistently help people, really being what a church is supposed to be.”
Alicia Rhea has been a member of Westfair Baptist Church since the late 1950s.
“The church on the Four Corners was very steeped in tradition as far as its look,” Rhea said. “The building and everything was so different when we moved to Westfair.”
Rhea’s uncle, Mike Matijevich, drew up the plans for the new church building during a drafting class when he was a senior at Jacksonville High School.
“Brother Puckett, who was the pastor at the time, took those to an architect. I don’t know how much they changed, but the initial drawing was done by my Uncle Mike,” Rhea said. “We drew a lot younger crowd once we moved to the new building. At that time church was a big thing, people came more readily to church.”
Rhea’s family has had active roles in Westfair’s history.
“It was the church I was saved in, baptized in, got married in, and my kids grew up there,” Rhea remembered. “My aunt was a school teacher there and then the secretary, she worked at Westfair for 54 years. My cousin is the school principal, and my son is the associate pastor.”
Rhea recalled that the Four Corners church operated a Deaf ministry that served more than 400 people, something that has continued through the years at the current church building. The deaf ministry now meets in the church gym every Sunday morning.
“We also started the Kiddie College, which was the day care, and the school was born out of that,” Rhea said. “All of the church members are my family. I have gone to church with them for so long that they all are just family. I love it.”
Senior pastor Ben Wharton has been the Westfair pastor for less than two years, but it didn’t take long for the congregation to welcome the new preacher on the block.
“I’m a southern boy and have been in ministry myself for 35 years, 24 in the mission field, and this church took us in right away,” Wharton said. “It’s one of those things like when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve known them your whole life. We love the area and we’re looking forward to greater days ahead.”
“It feels more like a family than a church. There are six of us in my family, and one of our daughters just married a young fellow from the church,” Wharton added. “So having been here just a year and four months, that went pretty fast.”
Wharton said Westfair Christian Academy currently has 130 students enrolled, and they are looking to build that up to 200 students in the coming years. The ministry has a thriving day care and the church members offer assistance throughout the community. Wharton said that record of service speaks for itself.
“The greatest joy I have is coming into a solid ministry that has been run very well. Westfair is a very loving church, a very welcoming church, preaching the Word of God and letting God do the work,” Wharton said. “In ministry we don’t try to enforce what we believe from the Word unto others, but we believe that following God’s Word strengthens us and it strengthens us as a nation, as a church, and as families. It’s just a good ministry to be a part of.”
Longtime member Alicia Rhea is glad that she and her family have been part of Westfair Baptist Church for more than 60 years.
“I think it’s the best of the best. We offer so much and we are a very welcoming and friendly church,” Rhea said. “We have all kinds of programs and we have great workers that run those programs. We have small groups that enable us to have a core that gets really close together and that strengthens the church.”
JoAnn Stubblefield, a member for 74 years, echoed those sentiments.
“It’s not a mega church, and a lot of times people don’t want a mega church. They want a church small enough that they feel a part of it,” Stubblefield said. “Westfair helps people to grow in the faith.”
