Jump to content

African Zion Baptist Church

Coordinates: 38°17′58″N 81°33′26″W / 38.29944°N 81.55722°W / 38.29944; -81.55722
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
African Zion Baptist Church
African Zion Baptist Church, September 1979
African Zion Baptist Church is located in West Virginia
African Zion Baptist Church
African Zion Baptist Church is located in the United States
African Zion Baptist Church
Location4104 Malden Dr., Malden, West Virginia
Coordinates38°17′58″N 81°33′26″W / 38.29944°N 81.55722°W / 38.29944; -81.55722
Area0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
Built1872
NRHP reference No.74002010[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 27, 1974

African Zion Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church at 4104 Malden Drive in Malden, Kanawha County, West Virginia. It is within the Malden Historic District.

It is a one-story frame structure built atop a stone foundation. It has a gable roof topped by a wooden bell tower. This is considered the mother church of African-American Baptists in West Virginia, many of whom migrated there after the American Civil War and Reconstruction. Among its noted members were "Father" Lewis Rice, founder of the church and a leader of the early African-American community in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia, and Booker T. Washington.[2]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ James E. Harding (September 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: African Zion Baptist Church" (PDF). State of West Virginia, West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-08-02.
[edit]

Media related to African Zion Baptist Church (Malden, West Virginia) at Wikimedia Commons

Side of the church in 2021