File:PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF SOUTH (FRONT) AND EAST SIDE - Curtis Freewill Baptist Church, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV HABS WVA,19-HARF,35-1.tif

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PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF SOUTH (FRONT) AND EAST SIDE - Curtis Freewill Baptist Church, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV
Title
PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF SOUTH (FRONT) AND EAST SIDE - Curtis Freewill Baptist Church, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV
Description
Freewill Baptist Church; Storer College; Curtis, Silas
Depicted place West Virginia; Jefferson County; Harpers Ferry
Date Documentation compiled after 1933
Dimensions 5 x 7 in.
Current location
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Accession number
HABS WVA,19-HARF,35-1
Credit line
This file comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). These are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports.

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Notes
  • Significance: The Curtis Freewill Baptist Church served as both a religious building for students of Storer College and as its own congregational church for African American residents of Harpers Ferry and nearby Bolivar. Constructed between 1889 and 1896, the brick church was named for Silas Curtis, a prominent member of the Freewill Baptist denomination in New England whose family donated money in his memory to complete of the building. Upon its dedication, the church replaced the chapel in Anthony Hall as the school's primary religious meeting place. Located across Fillmore Street from the main entrance to Storer College, the church had a troubled history in finding money, congregants, and pastorship. At the time of Storer College's closing in 1955, the church effectively had no congregation and was only being used for school-related activities. Though originally envisioned by members of the Freewill denomination to be a self-sufficient church for local African Americans, it largely failed to accomplish that goal and functioned in that manner for fewer than sixty years.

Presently owned by the National Park Service (NPS), the building is remarkably intact and still conveys its historic past as a religious edifice. To this end, Curtis Freewill Baptist Church is able to project the roles that Baptist theology played in the education and religious practices of African American students. It also speaks to the paternalistic structure of Christian missionary work. With its historic roots in rural New England, the Freewill church spread its influence across the country by opening schools for minority students, many of which were controlled by trustee boards comprised mainly of white New Englanders who rarely visited the institutions under their charge. Absent from the day to day activities of their schools and churches, yet still holding financial purse strings, the Freewill Baptist denomination likely alienated many African Americans, students and non-students alike.

  • Survey number: HABS WV-278
  • Building/structure dates: 1889-1896 Initial Construction
Source https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/wv0373.photos.172524p
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Public domain This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information.

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