Historical Information on the Church - Worship Sites

At its inception the church was originally located in the area north of Broad and Spring Garden Streets, in the edifice of the First Baptist Church; an area knows as La Grange Place. After worshipping there for a few years, the church rented a lot from it's mother church, and built their first church, 26 feet wide by 37 feet long. This small frame building was located on Tenth Street above Vine.

In 1825, the congregation which had decreased in size by a third (due to the rigid enforcement of rules whcih excluded 26 of its members) moved to Haviland Place.  Haviland Place ran west to 8th Street and was below Vine street.  The move didn't help the congregation's numbers, which steadily decreased until around 1832.The next move for the church was to Pearl Street, near eleventh street.  During this period, the church was administered under the pastorate of James Burrows and the congregation size grew four-fold.

In 1867 the congregation worshipped in an old brick Presbytarian meeting house on the north side of Cherry Street between 10th and 11th Streets in center city Philadelphia.  The church was bought for $20,000, and by 1880 the mortgage was paid off.  In the year 1886 it was remodeled.  As the years wore on, many of First African's worshippers moved south of the city. First below Vine Street, then Pine Street and then South Street. By 1880, a number of communicants like South Carolina born upholster Benjamin Ivory were living in the area and joined the church. The Ivory family lived at 753 South 16th Street.  The membership of the congregation continued to grow.

By the turn of the twentieth century, it became apparent to the members of the First African Baptist Church that to better serve their parishoners as well as the community, they soon would have to move from Cherry Street, notwithstanding that the locus of the African American population in Philadelphia began to shift to the South of the city.

In consequence under the leadership of then Rev. Dr. William A. Creditt, D.D., the church purchased property formerly owned by William Penn. The land was acquired from the estate of James Milhamon on December 30, 1902 for $16,500. John S. Trower, the president of the Trustee Board and a noted caterer and restaurateur, hired architect Frank Rushmore Watson to design the church. On October 7th, 1906 the church was dedicated with Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. as the keynote preacher. Three years later, at the centennial celebration, Dr. Booker T. Washington would be the speaker.