16th Street Baptist Church
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16th Street Baptist Church
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16th Street Baptist Church in 2005
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| Location | Birmingham, Alabama |
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| Coordinates | 33°30′59.69″N 86°48′53.26″W / 33.5165806°N 86.8147944°WCoordinates: 33°30′59.69″N 86°48′53.26″W / 33.5165806°N 86.8147944°W |
| Built | 1911 / 1873 |
| Architect | Wallace Rayfield; Windham Bros. Construction Co. |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 80000696 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | September 17, 1980 |
| Designated NHL | February 20, 2006 |
| Designated ARLH | June 16, 1976 |
The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, that is frequented predominantly by African Americans. In 1963, the church was the target of the racially motivated bombing that killed four young girls in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Since 2008 it has also been on the UNESCO list of tentative World Heritage Sites.
The 16th Street Baptist Church was organized as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham in 1873. It was the first black church to organize in Birmingham, which was founded just two years before. The first meetings were held in a small building at 12th Street and Fourth Avenue North. A site was soon acquired on 3rd Avenue North between 19th and 20th Street for a dedicated building. In 1880, the church sold that property and built a new church on the present site on 16th Street and 6th Avenue North. The new brick building was completed in 1884 under the supervision of its pastor, William R. Pettiford, but in 1908 the city condemned the structure and ordered it to be demolished. Pettiford was pastor from 1883-1904.
The present building, a "modified Romanesque and Byzantine design" by the prominent black architect Wallace Rayfield, was constructed in 1911 by the local black contractor T.C. Windham. The cost of construction was $26,000. In addition to the main sanctuary, the building houses a basement auditorium, used for meetings and lectures, and several ancillary rooms used for Sunday school and smaller groups.
As one of the primary institutions in the black community, the 16th Street Baptist has hosted prominent visitors throughout its history. W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century.
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