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West Virginia » Capital Center and South Central West Virginia » Kanawha County (outside Charleston) » Malden » African Zion Baptist Church

African Zion Baptist Church

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1872. 4104 Malden Dr.
  • African Zion Baptist Church (Walter Smalling, Jr.)

This small, rectangular, frame church, with a double door at the center of the facade, has segmentally arched windows and, astride the front gable, a jaunty one-stage belfry. Built for a congregation organized in the 1850s, it is regarded as the mother church of its denomination for African Americans in West Virginia. It also serves as a reminder of Booker T. Washington's Malden years. He was the church clerk and organized its first Sunday school, where he taught during the 1870s.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Data

What's Nearby

Cabin Creek Quilts
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Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "African Zion Baptist Church", [Charleston, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-KA1.

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