The congregation was founded in the 1770s as a non-denominational group of free and enslaved African-Americans, and became officially Baptist in 1781, led by
Gowan Pamphlet, an ordained slave. This building was destroyed by a tornado in 1834, and replaced by a larger structure erected in 1856.
John M. Dawson was the pastor for over forty-five years and was also a Virginia state senator between 1874 and 1877 during the
Reconstruction Era. In 1953, the congregation was raising funds for an expansion when the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation approached with an offer to buy the property for a price adequate to fund the construction of an entirely new church on a plot of land on Scotland Street, about 6 blocks to the west. Upon the new church's completion, the old would be demolished, furthering the Foundation's goal of restoring the historic area of Williamsburg to its late colonial appearance. The building was listed on the
Virginia Landmarks Register and the
National Register of Historic Places in 2017. ==See also==