First Baptist Church | |
Location | 727 Scotland St. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°16′27″N 76°42′40″W / 37.27417°N 76.71111°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1956 |
Architect | Bernard Spigel |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 100001050[1] |
Added to NRHP | June 5, 2017 |
The First Baptist Church is a historic church at 727 Scotland Road in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is a brick Colonial Revival structure, built in 1956 to a design by Norfolk architect Bernard Spigel. It is of only two known church designs by Spigel.
The congregation was founded in the 1770s as a non-denominational group of free and enslaved African-Americans, and became officially Baptist in 1781.[2] At the time of its founding, African-Americans could not own property; the land had been donated to them by a wealthy white man with the understanding that it would be used as a place of worship.[3] John M. Dawson was a pastor for over forty-five years and was also a Virginia state senator between 1874 and 1877 during the Reconstruction Era.[4]
Located for many years in a church on Nassau Street, it was relocated by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to its present location at the foundation's expense.[2]
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.[1]