Fourth Baptist Church
Richmond, Virginia
Minutes, 1880-1958
Church History: [The following brief history of Fourth Baptist Church, one of Richmond's oldest African American congregations, is excerpted from the church's entry for Virginia Landmarks of Black History: Sites on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, edited by Calder Loth of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and published in 1995 by the University Press of Virginia. The congregation is still active. Members of the church continue to worship from a building completed in 1884.]
Fourth Baptist Church, the first black Baptist church in the Church Hill community in Richmond, is a symbol of the black religious strength in the Confederacy's former capital during the decades following emancipation. Throughout the antebellum period most of Richmond's slave owners allowed their slaves the freedom to worship on Sundays, most commonly in their own quarters. As with a number of black churches, the Fourth Baptist congregation began before 1861 [in 1857] as a regular assembly of slaves for prayer. The group, which grew in numbers, met regularly on Chimborazo Hill until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the white congregation of the Leigh Street Baptist Church granted permission for the slaves to hold their services in the church basement.
In 1865 the Reverend Scott Gwathmey, one of the prayer leaders, gained permission for the group to meet in a Union barracks on Chimborazo Hill. There, on December 2, 1865, the Fourth Baptist Church was formally organized, with Reverend Gwathmey serving as the first pastor. When eventually the barracks were demolished, the congregation salvaged lumber from the debris and constructed their own church building. In 1875 this church was replaced by another one of frame, on the northern side of Church Hill, near what was to be the present church. The present building [at 2800 P Street and designed by Richmond's T. Wiley Davis] was completed in 1885, three months after the former church was destroyed by fire.
--- From the entry for Fourth Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia in Virginia Landmarks of Black History, published in 1995.
For more information about the history of Fourth Baptist Church: Fourth Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia: 1859-1986 -- this history was published by the church in 1986. The book was digitized by Special Collections and Archives and can be accessed below.
"First African Baptist Church and Fourth Baptist Church: An Examination of Richmond's African-American Temple Revival Church Buildings" by Ray Bonis and Melinda D. Gales, a paper presented at the Sixth Annual Architectural History Symposium, Fall 1998, Department of Art History, School of Arts, VCU. This paper is available in Special Collections and Archives. It focus on the architectural history of Fourth Baptist Church and its memorial stained glass windows.
The clippings file at the Richmond Public Library is also another source for information about Fourth Baptist Church and other Richmond churches.
Church Minutes Collection, 1880-1958:The collection of church minutes presented here include material about the financial operation of the church (including various lists of back debts, dues collected, pledge sheets and numerous reports); membership requests; baptism names and dates; notices of deaths or those ill; election of deacons and appointments of ministers and other church officials; lists of dismissals for various church offenses (from fornication and lying to "Sabbath breaking" and dancing); and information about various church renovations.
The minutes of Fourth Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia were borrowed and digitally scanned in the early 1990s. Each "folder" below includes images from one of the minute books that were digitally scanned. The minutes presented here are only a portion of Fourth Baptist Church's records. The original materials were returned to the church. Contact the church for further information about their records.
To view the material in the collection, click on a particular folder. Each folder contains image files of pages from the minute books which are listed sequentially in the order they were scanned. View the images as if you are going from the first page of document to the last. For some images it may be necessary to zoom in on particular words in the document. Adobe Photoshop and other viewers allow this. The images presented here are JPEG images which are easy to view through a web browser. Special Collections and Archives houses the original archival TIFF images of the minutes. If you have questions about this collection or if you need to see a better quality image of a particular file, email Special Collections and Archives.
If you have any questions, please contact Special Collections and Archives.
Folder Name -- Description of items (images) in folders.
Histor01 -- This folder contains a scanned copy of the book Fourth Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, 1859-1986 which was published by the church as a history of their congregation in 1986. All 56 pages of the book were scanned and available for viewing. A copy of the actual book is housed in Special Collections and Archives.
Minute01 -- This folder contains minutes for 1880-1885.
Minute02 -- This folder contains minutes for 1894-1905.
Minutes03 -- This folder contains minutes for 1906-1914.
Minute04 -- This folder contains minutes for 1932-1938.
Minute05 -- This folder includes minutes for 1938-1945.
Minute06 -- This folder contains minutes for 1945-1955.
Sunday01 -- This folder contains minutes of the Sunday school meetings, 1953-1958.
Usher01 -- This folder contains minutes of the Usher meetings, 1914-1922.
VBHA Guide to Collections | VBHA African American Church History
Virginia Black History Archives | Special Collections and Archives