Royal Lane Baptist Church was formed on October 5, 1952. It was a mission church spun off from Ridgecrest Baptist in east Dallas. With a vision of growth in what was then thought of as the “hinterlands of way North Dallas,” a small group of people, led by Thomas Jackson, became a church. Until a conventional church building could be built, these dedicated people met in a building at Hillcrest and Meadow.
The present property of Royal Lane Baptist Church consists of the land from Hillcrest Road to the baseball fields on the west side of the building, containing Family Hall and the Education and Youth Building. The original sanctuary was where Family Hall is now. There was no kitchen, then, and the choir loft was over what is now the kitchen. The church offices were in the rooms off of Family Hall.
As time passed, there was a need for a larger meeting area, so plans were drawn for a new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church burned before the new building was started. This was sometime in the early 1960’s. After that, the building program was accelerated and, with the proceeds from a new building campaign and insurance, our present facility was built. At a later time, one of the charter members donated money to have the arcade built that joins the two buildings.
The little brick house (parsonage) that sits on the church property was donated to the church, moved to the present site, and used for children’s programs for a time. Then, the Children and Youth building was built. The parsonage has been used for various activities over the years. For several years it was the home of our Building Supervisor Emeritus, Lonnie Harris. After months of dedicated work by a team of volunteers and total renovation of the cottage, a service of blessing was held on September 21, 2016, to dedicate the cottage to its present ministry of providing housing for families in need.
Family Hall became Vickrey Hall on February 6, 2019, in honor of Rev. Ray Vickrey, longtime pastor at Royal Lane. In February of 2019 the Gallery was named the Box Gallery in honor of Martha Box and her many contributions as an artist and her support of the artistic community.
After dreaming for several years, the Columbarium Committee was formed and began meeting in 2019 to prepare design elements and bring to fruition a Columbarium for Royal Lane. The construction of the RLBC Columbarium Garden began on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, and it was dedicated on All Saints Sunday, November 7, 2021.