Union Baptist Church
Union Baptist Church 2022
The “roots” of Union Baptist Church go back to a worship place called the “brush harbor” (a shelter built out of rough hewn, unprocessed wood, covered over with tree limbs and leaves from the surrounding trees). This method of providing shelter may have originated with the Native Americans.
The name of the original church group was Shiloh. When Shiloh moved from the brush harbor near the graveyard, members of Union Baptist Church left Shiloh and founded their own church on Snead Street.
Union was born in 1884, nearly 20 years after the Civil War crisis. As with an infant, the church was nurtured in the shadows of a tenuous peace by a faithful and dedicated group. In 1885 the trustees of Union Baptist Church met with trustees of the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad to purchase real estate to be used as a place of public worship for the congregation (310 North Snead Street).
Although the founding members have gone on to their “Final Reward,” the aura of their sacrificial efforts inspires and motivates us to newer and nobler achievements. The church motto is “Everyone is Someone at Union Baptist Church.”