This area had been inhabited by Creek Indians for thousands of years when Europeans first arrived in 1639 via the Chattahoochee River. 200 years later, formal settlement in this area began with a land lottery in 1827, and by 1836, all natives had been removed from this area. In 1830, Stewart County was created by the state legislature, and from 1836 to 1850, the county population exploded as droves of new settlers poured in. During this period, Stewart County became one of Georgia’s top three cotton producers. But signs of decline began to show by the 1850s when rail construction- connecting Savannah to west Georgia’s cotton producers- passed north and south of the county, but not through it.

The Civil War years and directly following brought many challenges to Stewart County but things were looking up by the 1880s as new investments in the southern railroads brought trains to Stewart County in 1885. New towns erupted over the next ten years, such as Richland as the railroad expanded. Richland was officially incorporated in 1889, however, a small community called Chisholm was here before the railroad arrived. Richland became an important stop on the Savannah-Americus-Montgomery Line and by the late 1800s, 6 passenger trains would stop here a day. As a result, Richland grew rapidly and boasted many businesses which served the region’s farmers and townspeople.

On August 15, 1888, the present Richland Baptist Church was constituted at the Richland Academy and a building committee was appointed to oversee the construction of their first sanctuary. The committee selected architect, Mr. Thomas Firth Lockwood, Sr., of Columbus, Georgia to plan the new church. Major T.A.H. Meyer donated a building lot at the corner of Nicholson and Walker Streets and a House of Worship was erected and occupied. The wooden church building was completed in the Spring of 1892 and the church bell was installed in 1893.

The congregation had outgrown this building by the early 1900s and in 1910, members voted to build a new church. The building committee raised $9,000, and construction on the new building began in 1913. They hired Mr. Lockwood again to design the building and hired Mr. Wood C. Lunsford to build it. The church was completed in March 1914 at a total cost of $14,000. The congregation sold the old church to a local resident who took it apart and repurposed the wood for building a home. A Sunday School annex was added in the 1930s and a new pastorium in the 1950s.

This impressive historic structure has been in use for more than 100 years and today, still holds regular Sunday services.