Click on photo to enlarge

Oldest in America, this Congregation was organized in 1773, and the sanctuary was built in 1859 by slaves and free blacks who built it brick by brick by lantern light in their meager time off. One of the first ministers, Andrew Cox Marshall, asked blacks who were saving up to buy their freedom ($1,500) to put the money towards buying the land. To build this structure, men made the bricks down by the river in the overnight hours, and women carried them up to this spot.

Many of the church’s original pews bear the tribal markings of the African slaves. If you get to see the basement, you might notice air holes in the floorboards - this was for the Underground Railroad. The Sunday school started here in 1826 is supposed to be the oldest in North America.