African Zion Baptist Church, famous as the church of Booker T. Washington, began in 1852 with a group of enslaved Christians. During the Civil War, Pastor Lewis Rice organized them into one of the nation's first churches started and completely controlled by slaves. In freedom, they formed the State's first Black Baptist Church and the State's second school for Blacks. In 1872, they purchased this property and later constructed this building. It stands as a rare icon of success for the Reconstruction Era.