The African Union Church of Christiana Bridge built a wood-framed church on this site in 1819. It was the first incorporated religious group in the country controlled entirely by African Americans. The congregation replaced the structure with a brick church in 1850. In 1897, the church relocated, and members disassembled it and transported the bricks to the new location, where they rebuilt it. The rebuilt church later became known as Old Fort Union American Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregation's first cemetery remained at the original church site, where eleven burials were recorded, and the last burial occurred in 1881.