St. Philips Moravian Church is the only historic African American Moravian church in the United States. Christian outreach to enslaved people in and around Salem was initiated by the Salem Female Missionary Society. The “Negro Congregation” was formally organized May 5, 1822, at a worship service in a barn here on Conrad Kreuser's farm outside of Salem. Kreuser was a retired Moravian storekeeper whose 30-acre farm included a brick farmhouse with the barn and outbuildings nearby. Worship services for the new congregation were held on “out of town” farms until 1823 when a log church was built on Church Street near Race Street, next to the 1816 “Negro God's Acre.”