Churches
Safe Havens, Community Anchors

St. Peter Claver

Since the 18th century, African American churches have nurtured the soul while feeding, clothing and housing the poor; fighting for civil rights; supporting business initiatives and job placement; and providing leisure and social activities. They are numerous, both large and small, and community cornerstones.

Churches serve as more than places of worship in Baltimore’s black communities. They serve as places of empowerment and incubators for organizing and planning. Early on churches served as safe ports for freemen and slaves “longing to breathe free.” They provided the spiritual foundations for upward mobility and liberation.

As early as the 1780s, freemen and slaves gathered for prayers and meetings in private homes. From these humble beginnings many congregations have grown to become historic, spiritual and moral institutions. In 1817, Bethel acquired its first church building on Fish Street (now Saratoga) led by Pastor Daniel Coker, an eminent orator and educator. Bethel purchased St. Peter’s Episcopal on Druid Hill in 1910, and was soon known as “the church of bishops” for pastors who assumed leadership in the international denomination.

Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1787, operated a church and school since the 1790s. They moved to the present location at Dolphin and Etting streets in 1896. Today, it stands as Baltimore’s oldest church founded by and for African Americans.

The emergence of congregations in Old West Baltimore, many of which occupy buildings formerly filled with white congregations, formed the community’s spiritual center. Their benevolent organizations provided food, services, education and training. They served as launching pads for organizations that would later relocate in the community to expand their services and outreach.

The churches served as the meeting places for the abolitionists and civil rightsorganizations; they were where the local and national civil rights leaders spoke. In addition, they were a communications network. They shared information and collaborated with groups like the Quakers who established the first abolition society in the South and helped support the Underground Railroad. Old West Baltimore’s churches served as models for other communities across the nation, by combining financial support, spiritual development, activism, and education.