| Historic Port Norfolk Baptist Church Spanning three centuries, one hundred and five years, Port Norfolk Baptist Church has been at the heart of the communityall along. From a Sunday School begun in a small waterfront pavillion in the Winter of 1897, the Church moved to a brush arbor built in the Spring of 1898 on the southeast side of the five hundred block of Maryland Avenue and Detroit Street. The Church was then under the support of Calvary Baptist Church. The Home Mission Board replaced the brush arbor in 1898 with a small frame church on the southwest corner of Maryland and Detroit. Dr. A. B. Dunnaway, the first Pastor, was called in the Spring of 1898 and the Churchwas organized with forty-five members. It was constituted on September 12, 1898. In 1900, a new church building was completed on the corner of Detroit and Broad Streets, the present site. In 1913, the Church added a Sunday School building and a parsonage was built on the adjacent lot. The Sunday School Building was remodeled and enlarged in 1930. The plans for the present building were initiated in 1943. The new Sanctuary and Sunday School Building were completed in 1953. The Fellowship Hall, enlarged Sunday School Building , and Chapel followed, with the Chapel being dedicated in 1961. In 1984 the Fellowship Hall was dedicated to Dr. R. Clayton Pitts, a former pastor. |
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| The old and new Sanctuaries side by side before the old building was torn down. |
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| History |