African Meeting House is dedicated.

Originally the First African Baptist Church in Boston, it is located at today’s 8 Smith Court (then Belknap Street). It is the oldest church building built by free African-Americans on its original site in the U.S. The congregation is the first African-American congregation outside the South in the U.S. and was organized on August 8, 1805, by members of the First and Second Baptist Churches and met initially in Faneuil Hall. At the dedication ceremony, floor- level pews are reserved for whites “benevolently disposed to the Africans,” while congregants sit in the balcony. Thomas Paul is the first pastor and serves until 1829. Subsequently St. Paul’s Baptist Church, it moves to Tremont Street in 1898,* and merges with two other congregations in 1915.* The original building is purchased by the Anshei Libovitz congregation. It becomes a synagogue in 1904 [1937], and a museum in 1988.*