Groundsite Image Gallery
Warren St. Baptist Church
Artist: Hughes, Langston
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
847 Ohio, front entrance of Ninth Street Baptist Church (1872)
When Langston Hughes had reason to enter this church, near his grandmother’s house on Alabama St., it was known as the Warren Street Baptist Church. In 1945 the city changed all east-west street names to numbers. Hughes attended the funeral of vaudeville personality George (Nash) Walker here in 1911.
The building is made of hewn vernacular limestone blocks, a common building material used in the Lawrence area. According to Dr. George Wiley of the Pluralism Project, The Ninth Street Baptist Church has a traditional look. The outside of the church is stone, and there is a large steeple. The basement and dining areas are downstairs, and the worship area is above street level.