{"nrhp_refnum":"80001165","name":"First African Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"901 5th Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Columbus","county":"Muscogee County","state":"GA","lat":32.463020854000035,"lon":-84.98648380999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-09-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Gothic Revival brick church at 901 5th Avenue in Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia, built in 1915 for the First African Baptist congregation. A classroom wing was added to the north around 1950.","why_significant":"The nomination cites architectural and religious significance at the local level. The church is a simple form of Gothic architecture that suggests early 20th century trends in Black community architecture. It also houses the oldest Black congregation in Columbus, an offspring of the city's First Baptist Church.","narrative":"First African Baptist Church, at 901 5th Avenue in Columbus, Georgia, is a two-story brick sanctuary completed in 1915 at a cost of $75,000. It was the congregation's fourth sanctuary. The congregation began in the early 1840s as an outgrowth of Columbus' First Baptist Church and was first called The African Baptist Church. The building is a simple Gothic Revival design with a rectangular plan, a rear apse and a gable roof. Two square towers of three and four stories flank a porch with three recessed entrances. Pointed-arch openings, stained glass windows, crenelated tower parapets and corbelled brick corners that imitate quoins provide the limited ornament. A classroom wing was added to the north around 1950. A small formal garden with a cast iron crane fountain lies to the north, amid Victorian and Greek Revival houses. The church is valued for its restrained Gothic design, which reflects architectural trends in the Black community in the early twentieth century, and for housing the oldest Black congregation in Columbus.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Currently used as a church; the north garden is described as in good condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.853871-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/80001165.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001165/d30fede0fa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80001165/d30fede0fa-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Linames2018","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_African_Baptist_Church,_Columbus_GA_Corner_view.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Linames2018</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_African_Baptist_Church,_Columbus_GA_Corner_view.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93206462","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_African_Baptist_Church_(Columbus,_Georgia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452252"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/muscogee-county/first-african-baptist-church-80001165/"}