In black communities throughout the US, churches were a cornerstone of community life, bringing together Sunday school, prayer meetings, gospel singing, spirited preaching, church suppers, and special events. Before Emancipation, restrictive laws often prohibited blacks from gathering in large numbers except in churches. Rev Samuel Roundtree, one of five Nicodemus organizers and promoters, recruited homesteaders from Baptist churches in central Kentucky. Soon after arriving in the fall of 1877, Rev. Silas Lee organized the Nicodemus First Baptist Church. The congregation first worshiped in a dugout at Tom Johnson's homestead north of town, then in a large sod structure at this location. In 1880, it built a large limestone church here on the main street of the growing town. In 1907, the congregation substantially enlarged the church, moved the front entrance to this side of the building, and incorporated the original church into the new one. At least one wall of the earlier limestone church remains, supporting the east side of the building, and oral tradition holds that when the larger new church was complete, the old church was disassembled and taken out through the windows of the new one.