Gillfield Baptist Church, Virginia

Gillfield Baptist Church
Gillfield Baptist Church, Petersburg
Coordinates: 37°13′25″N 77°24′28″W / 37.2235°N 77.4077°W / 37.2235; -77.4077
Location	209 Perry Street, Petersburg, Virginia
Country	United States
Denomination	Baptist
Website	www.gillfieldbaptistchurchpetersburg.org/
Architecture
Heritage designation	Virginia
Completed	1797

Gillfield Baptist Church is the second-oldest black Baptist congregation in Petersburg, Virginia and one of the oldest in the nation. It has the oldest handwritten record book of any black church. It was organized in 1797 as a separate, integrated congregation. In 1818 it built its first church at its current lot on Perry Street.

In 1957 its ninth pastor the Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker (1953-1959), co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the congregation in the Civil Rights Movement in Petersburg. It continues to serve the community today.

The church originated in Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1786, as the Davenport Church. In 1797, it was recognized as a separate institution with an integrated congregation which also included slave and free members.

In 1800, the black majority of Davenport Church moved to Pocahontas Island, the center of the growing free black community of Petersburg. It took the name of Sandy Beach Baptist Church.

In 1818, the church members purchased a lot on Perry Street in the Gillfield neighborhood of central Petersburg (named for Revolutionary veteran Erasmus Gill who laid out the streets before 1798). They built the first of what would be four successive church buildings at this site. The current church was constructed from 1874-1879.

These were the earliest decades of the Baptist Church in Virginia, influenced by preachers from New England who generated revivals. As more churches were started, members came together in an association in the southeast. In 1781 it split into two parts along state lines for Virginia and North Carolina. The twenty-one congregations in Virginia formed the Portsmouth Baptist Association. Representatives worked together to form church policy. From 1810 to 1828 they began to work on Foreign Missions and Christian Education.

Admitted to the Portsmouth Baptist Association in 1810, Gillfield Baptist then had 270 members. Free blacks continued to migrate to Petersburg. By 1821 Gillfield Baptist had the largest congregation within the association. At 441 members, it was more than twice as large as the next ranking church. While it had free blacks taking active roles, the church was led by white pastors in some of its early years. In addition, through the regional Baptist associations, whites tried to keep control over black congregations. They also began to restrict activities by black members.