Founded in December 1775 by Rev. George Leile, the First African Baptist Church is believed to be the oldest continually active, autonomously developed African-American congregation in North America. The church building constructed around 1859 served as the birthplace of the area's civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. During the Civil War, runaway slaves were hidden in a space under the floorboards of the sanctuary as part of the Underground Railroad.