First Baptist Church
1863-2022
First Baptist
Organized in
About 1863
Dangerfield Earley, a member of Cincinnati’s Black Brigade during the Civil War, moved to Walnut Hills in the 1850s.
In 1863, Earley formed a Baptist congregation. He’s documented in the history of First Baptist of Walnut Hills, and in other Black sources.
Finding him in “official” documents gets more complicated.
Census 1870, Dangefield Earley was easy to find in Walnut Hills
Who was Dangerfield Earley? Census and directories.
Census 1870, in Walnut Hills
Who was Dangerfield Earley? Census and directories.
Census 1880, the census recorded the same family on Willow Street
Census 1870, in Walnut Hills
Who was Dangerfield Earley? Census and directories.
Census 1880, On Willow Street
Census 1860, he lived in the West End, but his name was harder to figure out
Census 1870, in Walnut Hills
Who was Dangerfield Earley? Census and directories.
Census 1880, On Willow Street
Census 1850, the Earleys lived in Little Africa, near the river. Why Benjamin?
Census 1860, in the West End
Census 1870, in Walnut Hills
Who was Dangerfield Earley? Census and directories.
Census 1880, On Willow Street
Census 1850, in Little Africa
Census 1860, in the West End
Williams' Cincinnati directory [1857]
Williams' Cincinnati directory [1861]
Williams' Cincinnati directory [1863]
Williams' Cincinnati directory [1872]
Williams' Cincinnati directory [1893]
The Black
Community in
Walnut Hills
lived east of Lane Seminary
First Baptist Church on the move, a house church around 1860
The first place of worship
was on Park, in the old
Rudolph residence.
It moved to
Willow St,
the Earley
property
First Baptist Church on the move, a house church at the Earley’s in the mid 1860s
Frank Reeder built
a frame church for $850
on a $1250 lot
First Baptist Church on the move, in its first church building in the 1870’s
First Baptist Church neighborhood, 1884
First Baptist Church on the move: Worshipped at Rebisso Hall when the Chestnut Street building was condemned in about 1902. Image from from 1904 Sanborn map.
First Baptist Church on the move, 1904, in a new frame building on Lincoln Avenue.
On the block with Mt Zion ME and Brown Chapel AME, and one building labelled “Negro Tenements.”
First Baptist Church as an anchor.
500 seat sanctuary, the largest in Black Walnut Hills.
$10,000 construction completed in 1908.
Mortgage burning 1921.
First Baptist Church as it grew in the 1920s. A new wing at the left in this picture, provided space for a $5400 pipe organ and choir rehearsal space. Offices underneath. Completed 1926.
First Baptist Church as it grew. Sandborn maps required 2 updates, the first for the 1908 building, and another in a slightly different shade to the right for the 1926 addition.
Modern photo detail of the music wing added to the original sanctuary in 1926, adding a skylight.
Note the integrity of the addition. Two windows from the sanctuary were moved to unify the look; the window second from the left is one of two added to old structure.
First Baptist Church organ loft and pulpit from 1926. Four doors open to more added space behind the wall.
First Baptist sanctuary from the balcony. Music addition bumps out left front. Hammond organ with a floor console and wall-mounted speaker from 1960s.
First Baptist Church as it grew in the 1960s. Modern photo of the education building added next to the original sanctuary in the mid-1960s.
The education building shown at the bottom of this photo was sized and sited to allow daylight through the stained-glass windows on the south side of the sanctuary.
First Baptist Church as it grew in the 1960s. CAGIS map shows footprint of the 1926 building at 2920 Park and the education wing from the mid-1960s with address 2926 Park.
First Baptist Church as it grew in the 1960s. CAGIS map shows footprint of the 1926 building at 2920 Park and the education wing from the mid-1960s with address 2926 Park.
First Baptist Church today.
Madison Road extension and Victory Parkway, 1929.
Martin Luther King Dr., 1985.