Spruce Street Baptist Church

Spruce Street Baptist Church is a Tennessee historical marker in Nashville, Davidson County.

Davidson Co, 504 20th Ave North Baptist Church and Pearl Street, Nashville, TN

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Spruce Street Baptist Church was originally a part of the First Colored Baptist Church, founded in 1848 as a "mission” of the First Baptist Church. Nashville's first black ordained minister, the Rev. Nelson G. Merry, served as pastor. In 1865, the church formally gained its autonomy from the white church. Spruce Street Baptist Church in 1895 became the second branch of the city's first black Baptist church to organize a separate assembly. Formerly located near Capitol Hill, under Pastor Dr. A.M. Townsend, the first alumnus of Meharry Medical College to serve on its board of trustees, in 1955 the church body moved into this edifice designed by the architectural firm of McKissack and McKissack.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1838 · Kentucky (T.G. Bradford, 1838) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1844 · Kentucky (H. S. Tanner, 1844) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Kentucky And Tennessee (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1866 · Battlefields In Front Of Nashville. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1895 · Battle-field, Nashville, Tenn. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

More markers nearby

John Robert Bradleysame spot
Grace M. Eaton/Grace M. Eaton Dayhomeunder 1 mi
Pearl High Schoolunder 1 mi
William Edmondson (c. 1883-1951)under 1 mi