Bryan Neck Missionary Baptist Church

Organized in 1869, this is the oldest African-American church congregation in lower Bryan County. The first structure for the church, a Prayer House, was built in 1870 on this site near the white Presbyterian Church (Burnt Church). London Harris, a ...

Cedar Creek Primitive Baptist Church

Cedar Creek Primitive Baptist Church was organized April 10, 1813. The first pastor was Samuel Strange; first clerk was John Collins; first deacons were Frederick Holland, John Collins, and H.H. Kennedy. Other deacons include Redding Yeomans, J.J. Kennedy,

Lewis Powell, Homer ...

Reuben Ford and Hopeful Baptist Church

Hopeful Meeting House began services under the ministry of Baptist pastor Reuben Ford in 1807. Ford played an important role in the post-Revolutionary struggle for religious freedom. In the 1780s, he lobbied the Virginia General Assembly on behalf of Virginia's ...

St. James Baptist Church

This church, founded in 1886 by former members of First African Baptist Church, is one of the oldest surviving institutions remaining from the town of Mitchelville, a freedmen’s village established here by the United States Army in 1862. The present ...

First Baptist Church

Organized in 1820, this is the church's third downtown location. The elaborate Gothic tower is all that remains of the Matthews & Thompson building that stood at this location from 1886 to 1967. The Baptist Sunday School Board, now one ...

Bethsaida Baptist Church and Cemetery

Bethsaida Baptist Church, formed in 1829, was led by itinerant preachers traveling in the area. In April, 1843, John S. Dodd, was called to pastor the church on a permanent basis. He faithfully served the church for 50 years, retiring ...

First African Baptist Church

The initial congregation of this church was formed by slaves who had attended Ephesus Baptist Church (later First Baptist), since its organization on February 14, 1829. When a new church was built in 1840 the slaves worshipped in the older ...

New School Baptist Church

On this site slaves gathered between 1861-1865. They built a brush arbor church, worshipped God and became a faithful congregation. On December 5, 1881, Rev. John L. Bell and four other church leaders purchased one acre of this land for ...

Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church

The Rev. John Jasper, born a slave in Fluvanna County on 4 July 1812, organized the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church congregation in Richmond on 3 Sept. 1867 in a former Confederate stable on Brown’s Island. A nationally celebrated preacher, ...

White Plains Baptist Church

White Plains Baptist Church was organized in 1806, with all four sanctuaries located here. The current sanctuary was constructed in 1887. Welcoming its first African-American member in 1812, both races worshipped together until 1869. In the late 1820s the church ...