Third Baptist Church - 1983

A single family Victorian, the Goodall Mansion, occupied this site before the Church was built in 1966. The church was established in 1852 as the First Colored Baptist Church and moved several times before coming here in 1952. The decision to move here reflected the shift in African American geography following World War II. Amos Brown became in pastor in 1976 and has been active in city politics ever since. Rising cost of homes is driving the African American middle class out of the city, the people who constitute the core of the congregation. Third Baptist had a major role in the original Fillmore Center that was intended to be a showplace of African American capitalism. They planned to build a school, offices, convention center, senior center and a new church on the block bounded by Fillmore, Turk, Steiner, and Eddy Streets; no financing could be obtained.