City: Williamsburg, VA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (757) 229-1952

Address: 727 West Scotland St.

Description: One of the earliest Baptist congregations in the country, it is more importantly one of the first African-American churches in America, organized in 1776. Blacks had been allowed to worship in Bruton Parish Church, where they were seated in the North Gallery. Because they were not included in the worship service, they left the parish and built Brush Harbor on the Greensprings Plantation west of town, where they worshipped early in the morning, late at night, and sometimes in secret. This site was remote from the city, so they built a second Brush Harbor at Raccoon Chase, nearer Williamsburg, and sought spiritual fellowship there. A resident of Williamsburg, Jesse Coles, heard of these communities and made his carriage house available to blacks in the city. The group that met there organized in 1776 as the First Baptist Church. The church applied for admission into the Dover Association in 1791 and was accepted two years later.For more than a century, the congregation worshipped in a brick church building built in 1855 on Nassau Street, now gone. In 1956, the congregation moved into its present structure at 727 West Scotland St. In the lower level of this church is a fascinating display tracing the history of this important congregation; furnishings of the earlier church are used in various parts of the current edifice. Worship service at First Baptist is at 11 a.m. Sun.