First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

The architect of First Shiloh's 1955 sanctuary had come to Houston in 1952, unable to find work at White firms. John Saunders Chase, born in Annapolis in 1925, fought in the Philippines and in 1950 became the first African American to enroll in the University of Texas School of Architecture. In Houston he taught drafting at Texas Southern and opened a practice of schools, homes and churches. He helped found the National Organization of Minority Architects in 1971, joined the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in 1980 as its first Black member and designed the American embassy in Tunis.

What the plaque says

First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church was established in 1891 in the Fifth Ward of Houston. It is one of the oldest African American Baptist churches in the area. The congregation was made up of displaced Shreveport residents, who were forced to leave after the flood of 1890 left them without homes or jobs. The first pastor, Rev. Judge P. Parker, led his small congregation in houses for three years until they rented the Colored Odd Fellows Hall on McMillan St. The church was commonly referred to as "The Louisiana Church." In 1898, property was purchased in the 2900 block of Providence St. and a brush arbor was constructed on the site. The first permanent edifice, a large stone structure with a baptistery, was erected in the early 1900s. In 1947, the congregation purchased land adjacent to the church and built a two-story brick building for educational purposes. The church moved to its current site on Lyons Ave. in 1953 when the property at Providence St. was sold to the City of Houston. The congregation's new worship facility was designed by John Saunders Chase, Jr., Texas' first licensed African American architect. The church was renamed First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church when the new building was finished in 1955. Noted church members include Louise Ozelle Martin, the church's official photographer, who chronicled Houston's black society and opened a photography school; and Catherine Adams, who had a city park named in her honor due to her work with community organizations and area youth. In 1985, the B. H. Roberts Institute was established to honor the late pastor who served the community for 35 years. The church still serves as a place of worship for the now diverse Fifth Ward community. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 3.0 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 3.7 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 4.2 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Rothko Chapel — 5.0 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Peacock Records — 0.2 mi
• Mount Pleasant Baptist Church — 0.3 mi
• Mount Vernon United Methodist Church — 1.0 mi
• The Frenchtown Community — 1.0 mi