{"nrhp_refnum":"87001853","name":"First Calvary Baptist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1036--1040 Wide St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Norfolk (Independent City)","county":"Norfolk","state":"VA","lat":36.85616852000004,"lon":-76.27776452199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-10-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story, eleven-bay brick church at 1036-1040 Wide Street in the Huntersville area of Norfolk, Virginia, designed by the Norfolk firm Mitchell & Wilcox and built in 1915-16 in the Second Renaissance Revival style. A 1968 educational building is attached to it.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is architecturally significant as one of Virginia's most important Second Renaissance Revival churches, with notable terra cotta ornament and one of the largest stained-glass domes in an early 20th-century Virginia church. It is also significant in Black history: a congregation of limited means paid off the construction costs in two years, and the church remains a focal point of Black cultural and spiritual life in Norfolk.","narrative":"First Calvary Baptist Church is a four-story, eleven-bay brick church at 1036-1040 Wide Street in Norfolk's Huntersville area. Designed by the Norfolk firm of Mitchell and Wilcox and completed in 1916, it is built in the Second Renaissance Revival style. The facade has a two-tier engaged portico with fluted terra cotta columns and Corinthian capitals, and a terra cotta bell tower rises at the north corner. Inside, a cruciform sanctuary has original wooden pews, balconies on Corinthian columns, and a stained-glass dome about twenty-five feet across. The congregation, formed in 1880 from the growth of Bank Street Baptist Church, was largely made up of low-income workers such as maids, cooks and laundry workers. Even so, members paid off the building within two years. The church is valued as an architectural landmark among early 20th-century Black churches in Virginia and as a lasting center of Norfolk's Black Baptist community. A 1968 educational wing is attached at the rear.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Mitchell and Wilcox, Architects","architectural_style":"Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use; the interior was renovated in 1979 and a noncontributing educational building was added in 1968.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.625865-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/25/6821/41682125/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/87001853.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001853/f21e021a4a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001853/f21e021a4a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Cathy1763","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Calvary_Baptist_Church.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Cathy1763</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:First_Calvary_Baptist_Church.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682125","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Calvary_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16836932"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/norfolk/first-calvary-baptist-church-87001853/"}