FLORENCE, Ky. — At the corner of Girard and Center in Florence, the light radiates off a plaque that marks a monument to Black history: The First Baptist African American Church. Founded in 1870, the city now wants to restore the building lost to time.
"(It's) a link to the past, heritage, history, cultural center," said Florence Mayor Julie Aubuchon, describing what she thinks of when she goes by this historic landmark of Boone County.
"It was on my way from my school to my house," added Aubuchon. "There was a small congregation, but they seem to be very active, they would have picnics in the summer."
The Boone County Public Library archives say the African-American congregation was founded in 1870 and was one of "several in the county created by free Blacks after the Civil War."
On the dedication plaque out front it says it founded by the Trustees of the Colored Baptist Association and was "essential to formerly enslaved people & Freedmen in the area. Trustee & minister George Foster preached his first sermon at the church on December 23, 1877. In addition to serving as a place for worship and fellowship, the church often hosted social events, community meetings and basket meetings."
It was considered "the focal point of the emancipated African American community in the area and their descendants who traveled regularly back to Florence."
"I know that it was a safe harbor for them, and it was a place of peace, a place where they could grow closer to God," said Aubuchon.
Over time, Aubuchon said their numbers dwindled and the congregation disbanded. The former church has been converted to other things over the years, including a company's training center at one point. Boone County property records show the city of Florence purchased the property on February 1, 2024 for $150,000. City leaders have plans to restore it to how it looked in 1870.
"We wanted to preserve it when we found out it was going for sale," said Aubuchon.
Besides an old organ and piano, when you step inside the old church, there's very little that resembles the past. The city plans to peel off the current vinyl siding and restoring the original wooden siding that is underneath it. Right now, they don't know what kind of shape its in, but it's all going to be a community-wide effort to preserve an important corridor to the city's original Main Street.
"We will be able to do some history finding as well, as not only the construction part, but filling in the gaps of the pieces of history that are missing," said Aubuchon.
WCPO found some of the church's history in November 2023, when we brought you a story about the Florence Cemetery. It's a project from one historian who's been on a mission to find out who is buried at the cemetery. Hillary Delaney found that about 10 headstones in the area actually hold at least 127 different people.
"There are 55 people, who were enslaved at one point and were community leaders," said Delaney. "Thom Thomas, received the pension for his son, he actually was a landowner here after he attained his freedom in 1865, and then he founded the church which is about a block and a half from here."
That place Delaney is referring to is the First Baptist African American Church. WCPO also found in the Boone County Public Library archives lists Thomas as one of the original trustees of the "Colored Baptist Association," who purchased the lots for the church.
"Black history is American history, it's all of our history, there's people of all colors, races, creeds who have shaped the course of this nation and this is just one piece of it," said Aubuchon.
