Germantown Baptist Church
Germantown Baptist Church dates back to 1838 in Germantown, Tennessee and is a large Southern Baptist church, formerly categorized as a megachurch. The church is 179 years old, and since its founding has moved from its location in downtown Germantown to an over building complex on a campus near the border of Germantown and Collierville on Poplar Avenue. As of October 2009, the church has an average Sunday worship attendance of 2,064 and an annual budget of $7,564,896. The original building for the church still stands on Germantown Road. Built twenty-one years before the beginning of the Civil War, Germantown Baptist Church is the second oldest church in the city of Germantown.
Germantown Academy
The Union School was founded on the evening of December 6, 1759, at the Green Tree Tavern on Germantown Avenue. The school was founded by prominent members of the Germantown community who wished to provide a country school for their children. As some of the founders and residents of Germantown were of German descent, it was decided that the school be opened with both English and German speaking departments. The founders chose David James Dove to head the English department and Hilarius Becker of Bernheim, Germany, to head the German school. In 1761, land was given to the school by trustee Charles Bensell, and a schoolhouse with its iconic belfry was constructed.