Beulah Baptist Church
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Beulah Baptist Church (Alexandria, Virginia) | |
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Facade of Beulah Baptist Church in 2009 | |
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| Location | 320 S. Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°48′14″N 77°2′51″W / 38.80389°N 77.04750°WCoordinates: 38°48′14″N 77°2′51″W / 38.80389°N 77.04750°W |
| Built | 1863 |
| Architectural style | mid-19th Century Revival |
| Governing body | Private |
| MPS | African American Historic Resources of Alexandria, Virginia MPS |
| NRHP Reference # |
03001424 [1] |
| VLR # | 100-5015-0002 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | January 16, 2004 |
| Designated VLR | September 10, 2003[2] |
Beulah Baptist Church (Alexandria, Virginia) was established in 1863 in an African American neighborhood ("the Bottoms") in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. Rev. Clem Robinson, graduate of Ashmun Institute (now Lincoln University) and supported by the American Baptist Free Mission Society worked with his wife, Rev. George Washington Parker, and Miss Amanda Borden to establish "The First Select Colored School," as a school for African- Americans at the site in 1862, which preceded later Freedman Bureau schools in town. The church was founded the next year. In the first year, 715 students attended classes there. Robinson also taught upper level students at the church in the "Beulah Normal and Theological Institute," which had over 80 students in a few years, and which preceded similar schools in the South, like Howard Normal and Theological Institute (1867, later Howard University) and the Hampton Institute (1868).[3]
Robinson and Parker assisted the efforts of other pioneers for Black education in Alexandria, like Harriet Jacobs and Julia Wilbur.[4] Robinson's school remained in place until 1870, when Alexandria opened its public school system. The church was also the first black church founded in Alexandria after its Union occupation in 1861.[5]
It is a two story brick building with a gable roof and large stained glass window. The church is located at 320 South Washington Street in Alexandria, Virginia.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 05-12-2013.
- ↑ M. B. Goodwin. “History of schools for the colored population,” in Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia, Washington D.C.: U.S. Office of Education 1871, reprinted Arno Press, 1969, pp. 246, 286.
- ↑ Jean Fagan Yellin, ed. The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers, Volume 2. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2008, pp. 444, 452-3, 490.
- ↑ Virginia African Heritage Program
