Court Street Baptist Church

The congregation was organized in 1843, when Lynchburg's African American Baptists were separated from First Baptist Church. The new African Baptist Church of Lynchburg met in a converted theater. It was demolished in 1879, after the deaths of eight people during a panic caused by fear of structural collapse. Church members provided all the money to buy land at Sixth and Court Street for a new building. Local architect Robert C. Burkholder designed the church, combining the Romanesque Revival and Second Empire styles. It was the largest church building with the tallest spire in the city in 1880.