1401 Pine Street
First Cavalry Baptist Church
Organized as Calvary Baptist Church under Reverend Samuel Johnson in 1865, this congregation was one of two that grew out of the enslaved membership of Columbia’s white Baptist Church (today known as First Baptist Church). It initially met under a brush arbor and then at the Mann-Simons Site before building its first frame sanctuary at 1412 Richland Street in 1875. That structure was replaced in 1900. The congregation moved and built a new stone church, its third sanctuary at this site in 1950. In 2005, that building was replaced by the current structure designed by architect Harvey Gantt, the student who desegregated Clemson University. The cornerstone from Richland Street, initialed C.B.C., is incorporated in its façade. The grave markers of Johnson and his wife, Katherine, were also moved to the new church and can be seen in front, though their graves remain in their original location.
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![Site of First Cavalry Baptist Church]()
First Cavalry Baptist Church, 2018. Historic Columbia collection
