{"nrhp_refnum":"09000151","name":"Second Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1100 E. 24th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Los Angeles","county":"Los Angeles County","state":"CA","lat":34.021028476000026,"lon":-118.25619867799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Second Baptist Church is a two-story, steel-framed brick church building at the southeast corner of East 24th Street and Griffith Avenue in Los Angeles, California, constructed in 1926 and designed by architects Paul R. Williams and Norman Marsh.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is significant under Criterion A as the home of one of the oldest and most prominent African American congregations in Los Angeles. It served as a major meeting space for the Black community and hosted civil rights events and leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The congregation also supported the NAACP Legal Defense Fund during the Brown v. Board of Education case.","narrative":"Second Baptist Church is a brick church complex at East 24th Street and Griffith Avenue in Los Angeles, completed in 1926 in the Lombardy Romanesque Revival style. Paul R. Williams, a young African American architect, designed it, and Norman Marsh prepared the structural plans. The building joins a sanctuary and a Sunday school, with Flemish bond brick, cast concrete trim, clay tile roofs, a rose window and a three-story bell tower. It cost the congregation $200,000 and could seat more than 2,000 people. The congregation was organized in 1885 and grew into one of the city's most prominent Black churches. Before World War II it was the largest meeting space owned by the African American community in the western United States. It hosted NAACP conventions, notable speakers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 1954 its members raised money for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund during the Brown v. Board of Education case. Its significance is tied to ethnic heritage and community development.","period_of_significance":"1926-1958","architect_builder":"Williams, Paul R., architect; Marsh, Norman, architect","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Lombardy Romanesque Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The building was undergoing a major rehabilitation expected to finish at the end of 2008; it retains religious use as a church.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.802528-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/09000151.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000151/3eb6049268-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000151/3eb6049268-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Cbl62","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_Baptist_Church_(Los_Angeles,_California).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cbl62</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_Baptist_Church_(Los_Angeles,_California).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857601","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Baptist_Church_(Los_Angeles)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7443053"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/los-angeles-county/second-baptist-church-09000151/"}