NASHVILLE, TN — The congregation of the Hopewell Baptist Church will return to worship at 10:00 a.m. in their Historic building on Sunday, October 23, 2022. The return to the building also marks the 108th anniversary of this historic congregation.
Founded in 1914, as an offshoot of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, one of Nashville’s oldest congregations, Hopewell moved from its Ireland Street location because of their growing congregation. The Third Baptist Church, for whom the building was designed, decided to sell in 1959, because whites began to leave the city for the suburbs as Blacks began to occupy a greater portion of North Nashville. Hopewell bought the building and parsonage.
In 1979, the building was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. The building and congregation is significant because of its ties to the German and African American peoples of North Nashville and to architect Henri Gibel, of the firm (Thompson, Gibel, and Asmus) who lived at 9th and Jefferson Street. He is also the designer of the Nashville Arcade. This church building and the Arcade are the only two remaining known examples of the work of the architect in Nashville. The building was built between 1902-03, and it like the Arcade, is reflective of the Romanesque Revival design.
The congregation led by the Pastor Derrick Moore has been known as the” biggest little Church in Dixie” because of its ties to international mission work and as one of the founding churches of the Nashville City District Association. The congregation has been worshipping at various churches in the city, most notably at the Corinthian Baptist Church of which the Rev. Enoch Fuzz is pastor. The congregation is grateful to the city of Nashville, the Nashville Historic Commission and people from all over the state for their generous donations in response to the destruction of the building from the tornado.