The onetime Second Baptist Church, located at 26 East Gutierrez Street, was designated by the Historic Landmarks Commission last week as a structure of merit in large measure because it was one of the first two Black churches in Santa Barbara.
“For … Black Americans, the church represented a space of black autonomy — spiritual, social, political — and as such it became a powerful institution,” wrote Nicole Hernandez, City Hall’s architectural historian. “They represented spaces of racial autonomy and freedom, where African Americans/Black Americans came together by choice and strengthened ties of mutuality.”
Although the church was founded as a congregation in 1910, it would not be built as a structure until 1912. And it would not be named Second Baptist Church until April 1924. It would be wiped out in 1925 by the earthquake that leveled much of Santa Barbara and would be rebuilt.