"No image of Meachum's church exists. This image is from the 1875 Compton and Dry bird's eye map of St. Louis. We know the general location of the church from the 1852 City Directory

Address: Construction Date: 1842 Architect:

FIRST AFRICAN BAPTIST CHURCH
Founded in 1825 by John Berry Meachum, the First African Baptist Church was the first Protestant congregation among African Americans in St. Louis. All subsequent African-American Baptist congregations in St. Louis were an outgrowth of this church. The congregation's first permanent house of worship was built in 1827 at the intersection of Third and Almond Street. In 1842, a new brick church was constructed one block further west, between Fourth and Fifth Streets. In addition to providing services for religious worship, the church operated a secret school for African-American children. Upon the death of John Berry Meachum in 1854, Emmanuel Cartwright became the church's second pastor.