The Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site) is a historic

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

at 801 Sophia Street in downtown

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 27,982. It is south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond, Virginia, R ...

. The church is a two-story brick building with predominantly Classical Revival styling, modeled to some degree after the Presbyterian Church of Fredericksburg, with later alterations. The church was built in 1890 for a predominantly African-American congregation, whose origins lie in a mixed-race Baptist congregation founded in 1804. That congregation split about 1815, worshipping in a building at this site, and became known as the Shiloh Baptist Church with the construction of a new building here in the 1830s. In 1849 the large congregation again divided, with most of its white members leaving to form the Fredericksburg Baptist Church at Princess Anne and Amelia Streets. Services were discontinued during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and the existing building was damaged, in part due to abuse caused during military occupation of the city. It collapsed in 1886, and the present building was constructed in 1890 as its replacement. However, due to a schism in the congregation, two separate groups claimed the name "Shiloh Baptist", which was resolved by giving the one at this location the name "Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site)", which it still retains. The church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2015.

References

External links

Shiloh Baptist Church (Old Site) website
* Fredericksburg Baptist Church website 19th-century Baptist churches in the United States Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Presbyterian churches in Virginia Churches completed in 1890 Churches in Fredericksburg, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Fredericksburg, Virginia 1804 establishments in Virginia Brick buildings and structures in Virginia {{Virginia-Presbyterian-church-stub