Walnut Street traces its beginnings back to the First Baptist Church of Louisville, founded in 1815, and the Second Baptist Church of Louisville, founded in 1838. The members of these two early Baptist
churches joined together in 1848 to form Walnut Street Baptist Church, located right in the heart of Louisville at the corner of 4th and Walnut Streets.
In that year of 1815, the First Baptist Church was organized with fourteen members with Pastor Hinson Hobbs. That was a time at which Baptists were beginning to cooperate across the young nation. A year earlier, The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination of the United States for Foreign Missions met in Philadelphia. This early missionary group came together for the express purpose of “diffusing evangelistic light through benighted regions of the earth.”
With a history of celebrated independence among Baptists, this society marked an approach to missions cooperation, with the participating churches giving funds to specific missionary causes.
The early members of this First Baptist Church were evidently interested even then in the cause of missions, applying for membership in the Long Run Association of Baptists in the Louisville area. The part time pastor, Hobbs, was the first missionary appointed by the Long Run Mission Board, traveling throughout the west preaching the gospel and organizing Baptist churches. Thus began the long and storied heritage of this church with regard to missions. In 1815, Kentucky itself was a pioneer area and a “foreign field” of sorts, so the Walnut Street Baptist Church of today traces her missionary roots to the very beginning of this church.
Early in her history, this First Baptist Church became instrumental in the organizing of other Baptist churches in the area. In 1838, twenty-three years after the founding of First Baptist, nineteen members of First Church founded Second Baptist Church. In 1842, East Baptist Church had begun with ten members of First Baptist. In 1845, Fourth Baptist Church began, mostly with members from First. Such prolific starting of new churches continued through the second century of the church.
Even in her early years, the church was growing to be relatively large, with records showing some 532 members as early as 1839.
Throughout the 1840s, the First and Second Baptist churches moved closer together spiritually and physically. By 1849, First Church was meeting at Fifth and Green, with Second meeting at Third and Guthrie. In 1849, both churches called the same pastor, and so it was “Resolved by the First and Second Baptist Churches of the city of Louisville, KY, now in session, that said churches do now unite together and from our church, and that the entire list of members now in full fellowship in both churches be members of the church so formed. And from and after the adoption of this resolution, the First and Second Baptist Churches cease to exist as separate organizations.”
The name Walnut Street Baptist Church was based on the newly formed congregation’s plan to build on the newly purchased property at the corner of Forth and Walnut Streets.
The first pastor of Walnut Street was Thomas Smith, who served only two years before his resignation and death. The church then called W.W. Everts, a prominent preacher and revivalist from New York. Everts led the drive to complete the church’s sanctuary, helping raise more than $14,000 toward it’s completion. Dedicated on January 22, 1854, the church had a seating capacity of 800 and a $10,000 organ. Its beautiful Gothic architecture made it one of the most prominent buildings in Louisville. With a membership of 495, that year the church helped start three other Baptist churches in the city, thus continuing the missions thrust of the early congregations.
Throughout the next thirty years, Walnut Street continued to sponsor, support and launch new churches, including Broadway Baptist Church. In 1881, the church came under the leadership of T.T. Eaton, one of the most controversial and colorful pastors in Walnut Street’s history.
McFerran Memorial Baptist Church at the corner of Fourth and Oak, which later became Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, was dedicated in November 1889. In 1893 Highland Baptist Church was organized. As Eaton’s twelfth anniversary was celebrated, the church membership was listed at 1767 persons.
On May 2, 1900 the church was prepared to purchase a lot on the southeast corner of Third and St. Catherine for $16,500. Church minutes noted that the 1700 members might make it the largest Baptist church in ‘this country or any other country’ with the exception of Tabernacle Baptist Church in London. The McFerran Church, only a few blocks away, implored the Walnut Street congregation to “plant your new church house at a greater distance from the admirable site at Fourth and Oak, which you deeded to us ten years ago.”
On November 8th, the 1899 church voted 201 to 87 to sell the Walnut Street property and move to the “suburbs” of downtown Louisville. The building and property on Walnut Street were sold for $115,000 and on May 1, 1901, the cornerstone for the new building was laid. With a total cost of $120,000, the Western Recorder, the state newspaper of Kentucky Baptists, noted that “the building will be unsurpassed this side of Chicago.”
Still continuing her history of launching and/or supporting new works, among those started in the early to mid-20th century included, but are not limited to:
Deer Park, Lyndon, Eastern Parkway, St. Matthews and Kenwood.
By 1945, under the leadership of pastor Kyle Yates, the church had a membership of 4000. The following year, Walnut Street called W.R. Pettigrew as their twelfth pastor. Ten years later the church provided money which enabled Melbourne Heights Mission to purchase the property on Taylorsville Road. In 1965 Walnut Street purchased the property that became the site for Hurstbourne Baptist Church. The twenty years of Dr. Pettigrew’s leadership were prosperous years for Walnut Street as well as the denomination. During his tenure, in 1952, the church celebrated fifty years at the Third and St. Catherine location.
Following Dr. Pettigrew’s untimely death on December 12, 1965, on January 1967, Dr. Wayne Dehoney, pastor of First Baptist Church of Jackson, Tennessee accepted the call to come to Walnut Street as pastor. Dr. Dehoney led the initiative to enter the television ministry, which began on March 8, 1967 on WLKY-TV. The original contract was $855 per week.
In 1968 plans were approved for the Pettigrew Memorial Activities Building, which would serve as an educational, recreational and training facility for the church. Ground breaking in January 1969, the building has 55,000 square feet and is four stories high with a skating rink, full size gym, racquetball court, offices, games rooms, craft rooms, a bowling alley, educational space and what is now a fellowship hall.
In March of the next year, the church granted the request of Hurstbourne Baptist Chapel to constitute as a church, thus Hurstbourne Baptist Church became the twenty-sixth mission begun by Walnut Street.
Following eighteen years as pastor, Dr. Dehoney resigned effective February 1, 1985. During his tenure as pastor, Dr. Dehoney served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention as the church was widely recognized as one of the flagship churches of the SBC. As his tenure neared an end, another major project in the inner city was launched, with the Third and Oak Corporation incorporated by church members, building Treyton Oak Tower with its dedication in 1983. The late years of the 1980s and 1990s were years that saw a slow, subtle decline in membership as members moved to suburban churches. Two pastors, Dr. Jon Stubblefield and Dr. Kenneth Chafin, served the church into the early 1990s, followed by Dr. Robert Long who led the congregation until 2002. Rusty Ellison has been the pastor since May of 2003.
Our heritage and storied past guides us in ministry today and leads us to chart a course for tomorrow. Walnut Street is, and always has been, a “missions” church, with a focus on reaching lost for Christ and meeting the needs of those around the church in this community, as well as endeavoring to take the gospel to the “uttermost parts of the earth.”
Psalm 24:1 states,“The earth is the LORD's, 
Leaving a legacy, you want the chance to make a difference
At Walnut Street, we believe the Bible clearly teaches us that baptism is the first step of obedience after making a commitment to Christ. Baptism allows a believer to communicate to the world their heart-felt commitment to Christ. We understand that people often have questions regarding baptism such as “Why should I be baptized? and I’ve already been baptized; do I have to do it again?” 
