First African Baptist Church

About this property

The First African Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia is a Baptist Church. Founded in 1841, its members included both slaves and freedmen. It has since had a major influence on the local black community. At one point, it was one of the largest Protestant churches in the United States. The First African Baptist Church, originally called the African Baptist Church (until the establishment of the 2nd African Baptist Church in about 1846) was founded in 1841 by the black members of Richmond's First Baptist Church, along with some of the Black members of the Second and the Third Baptist Church as well. The First Baptist Church housed a multiracial congregation from its early beginnings until the white members of the congregation built a new church in 1841. First Baptist was originally founded in 1780 as the Richmond Baptist Church, and first located on the northeast corner of Cary St. at 2nd St. The congregation moved in 1802. For many years leading up to the split of the congregation, whites were a minority at the church—a fact which made some of them uncomfortable. Many black members had also called for a split because they were often denied entrance after the building became crowded. After they built a new church building for the white members of the First Baptist Church, the church leadership sold the building that they had been meeting in to the black members. It was then renamed by adding "African" to the title. Most of its early enslaved members were initially from the Tidewater region of Virginia before they were hired to businesses in Richmond. Many freedmen traveled from other cities to attend its services, as well. In 1866 James H. Holmes, a former slave and highly gifted preacher, and also a member and deacon of the church, was elected assistant pastor, and in 1867 pastor at the Church. Under Holmes, the church grew significantly and became one of the largest churches in the country. In 1871 he baptized 600 people, in 1878 he baptized 1,100. In 1876 the original building was torn down and the congregation built a new church costing $35,000 and installed an organ costing $2,500, which was the largest organ in any African American church, in 1877. The location of both the original church building and its replacement is at the corner of College Street and East Broad Street. The demolition of the original church building was an act which brought accusations of "a true lack of American veneration for old things" from Harpers Weekly. Architect Thomas U. Walter designed the new building, using a Greek Doric temple design. Many of the white congregations in Richmond used a similar style when constructing their churches.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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