Central Baptist Church of Minneapolis developed out of Union Baptist Church, a small congregation that split from First Baptist Church sometime during the Civil War, to create Union Baptist. Presumably, the split was over loyalty to the Union (given the name of the seceding congregation, but the WPA report does not state the reason and indicates, further, that the Union Baptist papers were burned when the "dispute" between the two congregations was settled. In December 1869, the Union congregation reformed as the Marshall Street Church, which purchased the Union church building and moved it to the NE corner of Marshall (5th Ave.) and 9th St. This building was sold in 1884 to the Mayflower Congregational Church, which moved it to the corner of Bloomington Ave., and 25th St. In 1883, the Marshall Street congregation built a new church at Grant and 4th Ave., South. Designed by architect Warren H. Hayes, the building featured a main auditorium with a baptistry on the floor with an Akron Plan Sunday school extension. This building was dedicated in January 1884. At this time the congregation changed its name to Central. In 1918, Central merged with Calvary Baptist Church at 26th and Blaisdell. The church building at Grant and 4th Ave., South was then purchased by the newly organized Central Lutheran Church.