National Baptist Memorial Church: Serving the community for over 100 years
National Baptist Memorial Church (1501 Columbia Road NW) is located at the crossroads of Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. It is across the street from All Souls, Unitarian and kitty corner from the Scottish Rite Temple and the King Peace Center (of which I will post a picture next week.) Unfortunately, the internet is yielding no information about this architecturally prominent church among the churches of 16th Street, though I did find a brief mention that the church is over 100 years old. Beyond that, nothing.
Anyone in Meridian Hill, Columbia Heights, or Mount Pleasant know anything about this house of worship?
Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08
8 comments:
Love your photos. Here is a link to a brochure on the history of the Mt Pleasant area that includes background on most of the older churches
sorry. here is the missing link: http://planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=/planning/lib/planning/preservation/brochures/mt._pleasant_brochure.pdf
Anon: Thank you! And thank you for the link with additional information. This is really helpful as there is so little information on some of these churches.
here's a link to more info than you ever wanted to know about dc houses of worship, avl in the annals of the dc historic society
-- church mouse
http://www.historydc.org/pdf/Religious_History_Resources.pdf
This is a great church. I stayed there for a week at the end of May 2008. The Pastor is Kasey Jones, a wonderful woman. I was told that the church was built in the 1930's, if my memory is correct. A number of different christian churches meet in this building at various times throughout the week. The sanctuary inside is beautiful!
Anon 4.29: I don't know how I missed your comment. My apologies. Thank you for this additional information!
Anon 6.11: Good info! Thank you! Can you tell me, is the church non-denominational or is part of the Baptist faith? I didn't think they ordained women. Anyway--thanks for stopping and providing more information. I really appreciate it!
Hi,
I'm a member at National Baptist Memorial Church. We are Baptist, affiliated with the American Baptist Convention, the Progressive Baptist Convention, and to a certain extent the Southern Baptist Convention. We are a small, diverse congregation, and yes, our pastor is an African American woman. Some of our Baptist brethren are probably rolling their eyes, but I think Jesus is nodding enthusiastically!
The congregation started as a neighborhood Sunday School in 1906, and the building was built over a couple of decades in the 20's and 30's. Attendance declined after the 60's, when many Caucasians moved membership to churches in the 'burbs, but we are making good connections with the local community. If you would like more info, contact me at richardwalkerdc@aol.com
Peace,
Rick
Rick: Thank you so much for this information! I found very little information about the National Baptist Memorial Church on the web, but I always enjoy driving past this church and continually wonder about it's history. Thank you for filling in the blanks for me and my readers.
Sounds like you've had a lively history and you're in upward growth in the neighborhood. With so much growth in Adams-Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Mount Pleasant, I'm not surprised your church is starting to grow. I hope the trend continues.
Again thank you for your time and the information about the church.
Post a Comment