Church founded by freed slaves 150 years ago holds final service in historic building

Mount Gilead Baptist Church, a congregation founded by freed slaves 150 years ago in Fort Worth, Texas, held its final service on Sunday in a historic building they have worshipped in since 1912, citing mounting maintenance costs and dwindling membership.

LoopNet, the leading online marketplace for commercial real estate, currently lists the 600-seat building at 600 Grove Street as under contract for $2.5 million. The sale comes after members voted 19-4 to sell the building last summer.

Longtime members like Patricia Williams are hopeful and nostalgic as they mark the end of a long and meaningful chapter in the church’s history.

"I hope it will always be a beacon to what, I think it was, 12 slaves started many, many years ago, and that needs to be taught," Williams, who has attended the church for four decades, told CBS News.

"That history needs to be never be erased because you can't erase history. You can't replace it, but hopefully, my great-great grandchildren will remember this building and remember that significance."

Last December, the church’s Pastor Lorenzo Jones IV told the congregation that the building was being sold to give them a new lease on life, according to Historic Fort Worth. He said the church didn’t recover from the loss of its in-person worshipers brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they hope to purchase a new building with the proceeds from the sale of their historic building.

Mount Gilead Baptist Church, reportedly Fort Worth’s oldest black church, was started in 1875 in a building built by freed slaves in a black settlement known as “Baptist Hill.” They later moved to the Grove Street location 110 years ago. Before segregation, the building was home to a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and a day nursery, according to Historic Fort Worth.

Michele McGregor, 70, was a youth director for the church and is the granddaughter of the Rev. Christopher C. Harper, the church’s longest-tenured pastor.  She recalled how her mother used the church’s indoor pool, which was an accessible place for black families to swim at a time when public pools were racially segregated, according to the Fort Worth Report.

“It’s wonderful. It’s exhilarating. I can feel them. I can feel them with me,” McGregor said at the final service in the building.

The Rev. Kyev Tatum Sr. of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas told CBS News that the legacy of the historic church should be protected.

"To see our ancestors have the tenacity and determination to not only build the building but using that building to help improve the quality of life of blacks in this community is something that should be preserved, protected, and defended,” he said.

“The building has significance to those of us who have historically known that as a church, but the reality is the church is inside of us.”