Historic Beginnings

Organized in 1873 as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham,

Alabama. Sixteenth Street was the first black church in Birmingham.
Initially, the congregation worshiped in a small building on the corner of 12th
Street North and 4th Avenue and later moved to 3rd Avenue North between
19th and 20th Streets.

In 1880 the congregation moved to its present location at 16th Street and 6th
Avenue North. A modern brick building was erected in 1884 that established
precedence for church building in the city. Ordered by the City of
Birmingham to tear down its building, the church officials commissioned Mr.
Wallace Rayfield, the state’s only Black architect, to design a new church
building. A native of Macon, Georgia, Mr. Rayfield had been raised in
Washington, D.C. He received his education at Howard University,
Washington, D.C. and Pratt Institute in New York City. The church, designed
by him, was built at a cost of $26,000.00 under the supervision of T.C.
Windham, a black contractor from Birmingham. Mr. Windham was a
member and served, for a period, as Chairman of the church’s Trustee Board.

The present church was completed in 1911. Of modified Romanesque and

Byzantine design, it features twin towers with pointed domes, a cupola over
the sanctuary accessible by a wide stairway, and large basement auditorium
with several rooms along the east and west sides.