Portal:Rhode Island/Selected article/4

The First Baptist Church in America is the oldest Baptist church congregation in the United States, founded by Roger Williams in Providence, Rhode Island in 1638. Williams held religious services in his home after founding Providence Plantation in 1636 before he converted his congregation into a Baptist church. For the next sixty years, the congregation met outside in nice weather or in congregants' homes. Baptists in Rhode Island through most of the 17th century declined to erect meetinghouses because they felt that buildings reflected vanity. Eventually, however, they came to see the utility of some gathering place, and they erected severely plain-style meetinghouses like the Quakers. The present church building was erected in 1774–75 and held its first meetings in May 1775. When it was built, it represented a dramatic departure from the traditional Baptist meetinghouse style. It was the first Baptist meetinghouse to have a steeple and bell, making it more like Anglican and Congregational church buildings. It is located at 75 North Main Street in Providence's College Hill neighborhood and is a National Historic Landmark.