First Baptist Church

Baptist missionary Harriet Bishop arrived in the St. Paul village in 1847 and set up a school for the white and Native American children in the area. This school initially met in a log house on lower 3rd Street and in October 1848 moved to a schoolhouse on upper 3rd Street and later to a schoolhouse on Jackson Street.  The congregation was established on December 29, 1849, in the schoolhouse.

The group built a church on "Baptist Hill" (now Mears Park), but when the hill was graded in 1857, leaving the building some 20 feet higher than the area, the congregation erected a new church on Wacouta Street near 9th Street.  Called the Wacouta Street Church, this church was dedicated on December 24, 1861. The congregation moved once more, in 1897, to a large stone church that it built at the corner of Wacouta and 9th Streets. The congregation and building are extant in 2015.

Several other congregations were formed out of this one, including Pilgrim Baptist (African American) in 1864, First Swedish in 1873, First German and Philadelphian in 1883, Immanuel in 1886. Several missions were also formed by the congregation: Ellen Street, Winnipeg Avene, Merriam Park, Burr Street (1888), Hebron (1885), Woodland Park (1883), Norwegian Danish and Oakdale Community Church (1924), Union Stockyards, Park Avenue, Walnut Street, and 4th Avenue.