{"nrhp_refnum":"82001802","name":"Delevan Baptist Church","other_names":["First Baptist Church","First Colored Baptist Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"632 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charlottesville (Independent City)","county":"Charlottesville","state":"VA","lat":38.03112923900005,"lon":-78.48959192299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-10-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Black"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick Victorian Romanesque church at 632 West Main Street (corner of 7th Street) in Charlottesville, Virginia, completed in October 1883 by builder John C. Sinclair for the Delevan Baptist congregation.","why_significant":"Delevan Baptist Church was organized in 1864 and is described as the oldest black congregation in Charlottesville. It took its name from the temperance hotel on the site, which was its first meeting place. The present building is the only example of Romanesque Revival architecture remaining in Charlottesville, and it is a visual landmark tied to the city's African-American community.","narrative":"Delevan Baptist Church is a brick Victorian Romanesque church at 632 West Main Street in Charlottesville, completed in October 1883 by builder John C. Sinclair at a cost of about $6,100. The rectangular building has a projecting square entrance tower topped with an octagonal wooden lantern, matching corner towerlets, round-arched stained-glass windows, and a corbelled brick water table above a full basement. The congregation began in 1864, when black Baptists left the town's older Baptist church. In 1868 they bought the lot holding the former Delevan Hotel, a temperance hotel from the 1820s also called Mudwall, and worshipped there before building the present church, begun in 1877. It is described as the oldest black congregation in the city and the only surviving Romanesque Revival building in Charlottesville. Later documentation also describes it as a landmark of the growing African-American community nearby and the only institutional building in its surrounding area.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"John C. Sinclair, builder","architectural_style":"Victorian Romanesque (Romanesque Revival)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Listed in good condition; still used 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 02:51:57.521195-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/53/6786/41678653/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/82001802.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001802/8cdf169b6e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001802/8cdf169b6e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Sarah Stierch","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church_West_Main_Street,_Charlottesville,_VA_-_Sarah_Stierch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Sarah Stierch</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Baptist_Church_West_Main_Street,_Charlottesville,_VA_-_Sarah_Stierch.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100001641","name":"West Main Street Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/west-main-street-historic-district-100001641/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678653","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delevan_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5253655"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/charlottesville/delevan-baptist-church-82001802/"}