Lobby Display for February 1996

Historical Black Churches of Norfolk, Virginia

Bank Street Baptist Church.

The Bank Street Baptist Church was founded in 1839 as an offshoot of the First Baptist Church on Bute Street. The congregation moved into the old Bell Church on Catharine (now Bank) Street, built by the Presbyterians in 1802. In 1969, a new building was dedicated at the present site on Chesapeake Blvd.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church was founded in 1896 as an offshoot of the St. Paul Baptist Church, Berkley. Church members purchased a house from Joseph Baker for $25 and used the lumber from the house to build the first Mt. Zion Church (known as the plum board church). The church burned in 1916. In 1918 this structure was built on E. Berkley Ave at Obendorfer St. In November 1976, ground was broken for a new building on Middlesex St.

First Baptist Church, Bute Street.

The Baptist Church was organized in Norfolk in 1800. The congregation was originally interracial. By the Civil War, a separate congregation was established whose members and leaders were Black, and was named First Baptist Church, Bute Street. The congregation worshiped in the building pictured here from 1877 to 1904. The present structure of brick and stone was dedicated in 1906.

St. John AME Church.

Around 1840, a mission for slaves was begun by the Cumberland Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation grew until, in 1863, there were more than 800 members. In that year, the church became a part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a religious denomination begun in Philadelphia in 1787. In 1888 the present church was built on Bute Street, and included the first pipe organ in a Black church in Virginia.

House of Prayer for All People.

Charles Emmanuel Grace founded the first House of Prayer for All People in Charlotte, NC in 1926. A church was established in Norfolk in the 1930s and, by the time of the Bishop's death in 1960, his flock numbered in the thousands, with red, white, and blue Houses of Prayer in 67 major U.S. cities. The congregation worshiped in the building pictured here from 1955-1960.

Grace Village Apartments.

1952, Princess Anne Road.

Mason Memorial Church of God in Christ.

The church was named for the Rev. C. H. Mason, who established C.O.G.I.C. in Norfolk in 1906.

[IMAGE: Congregation gathered in front of St. Joseph's Church]

St. Joseph's Catholic Church.

East Queen Street, 1906-1922.
St. Joseph's Parish was established in Norfolk in 1889. In 1893, the first school and parish building were dedicated. In 1896, 5 Franciscan Sisters came to Norfolk to teach at the school, and built a convent on Monticello Avenue soon thereafter. In 1961, St. Joseph's Parish was absorbed by St. Mary's Parish. St. Joseph's was the first high school for Catholic students in Norfolk.

St. Joseph's Catholic School.

East Brambleton Avenue, October 1934.

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