First Baptist Church

The oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States was founded by Roger Williams in 1638. Worshiping first in private houses and later in austere meeting houses, the Baptists made a new and bold move in erecting this magnificent building in 1775, a period when Providence enjoyed economic success. The largest surviving wooden structure from Colonial America, it combines the simple hall of a traditional New England meeting house with the most fashionable English architectural features, such as the steeple, modeled after a version of the one at St. Martin in the Fields (1724), on Trafalgar Square in London, by architect James Gibbs. Brown University, founded as a Baptist college, has held its annual commencement in the church every year since 1776.