1640–1644 Grant Avenue
Telegraph Hill · San Francisco, CA 94133
Grant Avenue was formerly Dupont Street. The flats standing here now went up after the congregation had left the site.
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1852
Nine Black Christians gathered to begin the religious and social-cultural activities of the congregation, on Dupont — now Grant Avenue — between Greenwich and Filbert.
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1854
The First Colored Baptist Church of San Francisco moved into its first church building, on Dupont Street between Greenwich and Filbert. The State of California's historical landmark registration application for the congregation gives the address as 1642–44 Grant Avenue.
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1855
The congregation took the name Third Baptist Church, as the third Baptist communion founded in the city and to be an inclusive church without a racial designation.
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1896
The congregation left this site for a building at Bush and Powell Streets, which the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed.
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May 1983
Alterations or repairs; DBI records no description.
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Nov 2008
Reroofing.
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Apr 2024
Kitchen and bathroom remodelled like for like.
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Mar 2026
Two bathrooms remodelled and a bathroom and half-bathroom added; dropped ceilings for new lighting; wall-mounted gas heaters replaced with a mini-split system; single-pane windows replaced with high thermal performance windows of the same operation and design.
DBI files the same permits under 1640, 1642 and 1644 Grant Avenue; each is counted once above. One street-space permit at a nominal valuation is omitted.
Not yet documented: the architect and builder of the 1907 flats, the early residents, the date of the last recorded sale, and what became of the church building itself — whether the flats replaced it or a later structure. Sources also disagree on two dates: the Argonaut has the congregation beginning its activities here in 1852, while SF Planning's landmark designation report has it forming that year at a private residence on Kearny Street and moving into this building in 1854; and the Argonaut puts the first pastor, the Reverend Charles Satchell, in place in 1854 where the report gives 1856. Submit an update