The First Baptist Church of Salem was built in 1805on Federal Streetand is the oldest brick meetinghouse in Salem. The local Baptist congregation was established in 1804 when 24 parishioners formed the First Baptist Church, and began gathering funds to elect a pastor and build a house of worship. At the time, Baptists were a religious minority in Massachusetts, where nearly all churches were Congregational, so against large odds, theparishioners funded a brick buildingand lot on the prominent Federal Street in Salem. The structure was completed by 1805 and is said to have been one of only fifty brick structures that stood in the city at the time. A major renovation to the building occurred in 1850, when the churchwas renovated in the Italianate style. Its three bays are articulated as an English basement containing three identical entrances framed in heavy rusticated brownstone. A belt course separates this basement from a principal story composed of tall arched windows capped by drip-molded brownstone. A lunette window is the centerpiece of the strongly projecting modillioned pediment.The entire compositionis very pleasing and showcases the ever-evolving architectural tastes in the 19thcentury.A tower was later removed due to structural issues. In the early 21stcentury, the site of the church was needed for an expansion of the Essex County Courts. The congregation sold the property and in the following year,the old brick church was moveda couple hundred feet to the west and restored and wasconverted into a law library for the new courthouse. Talk about historic preservation at work!