According to the 1936 WPA Report, Zion Baptist Church was organized in 1905 as a daughter church of Bethesda Baptist. The church, also called a “mission” in the newspaper, was located at Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue, North, where an existing building was purchased for its use. A 1907 Minneapolis Tribune newspaper article notes that Zion Baptist Church on the corner of Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue North was holding a series of revival meetings. In 1915 the congregation used a bequest of $5,000 to the church from one D. D. Stewart of St. Albans, ME, to purchase a lot at 557 Seventh Avenue and made plans to move the church from its Fourth Street location. However, as an article in the Minneapolis Tribune, titled “Residents Balk at Negro Church Next Door” (January 28, 1915), makes clear, they faced opposition from white community members who claimed that the presence of the church would “damage their property and make it practically useless for residential purposes” and who noted that Lyndale Avenue residents succeeded in keeping the church from moving into their neighborhood. Three months later, on January 30, 1915, the City Council granted the congregation permission to move its church to the lot; the building was dedicated at its new site on May 23, 1915.
This congregation later moved to 621 Elwood Ave., where it remains currently.