1640–1644 Grant Avenue

1. 1852

   Third Baptist Church founded

   Nine Black Christians gathered to begin the religious and social-cultural activities of the congregation, on Dupont — now Grant Avenue — between Greenwich and Filbert.

   Philip M. Montesano, “San Francisco Black Churches in the Early 1860s: Political Pressure Group,” The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society, vol. 31, no. 2 (Winter 2021), pp. 54–61
2. 1854

   First church building

   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.

   SF Planning Department, Article 10 Landmark Designation Report, Third Baptist Church Complex, 1399 McAllister Street (Case 2017-004024DES)
3. 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.

   SF Planning Department, Article 10 Landmark Designation Report, Third Baptist Church Complex, 1399 McAllister Street (Case 2017-004024DES)
4. 1896

   The congregation left this site for a building at Bush and Powell Streets, which the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed.

   SF Planning Department, Article 10 Landmark Designation Report, Third Baptist Church Complex, 1399 McAllister Street (Case 2017-004024DES)
5. 1907

   Built.

6. May 1983

   Permit 8303766 $$$ $2,920

   Alterations or repairs; DBI records no description.

7. February 16, 1993

   Registered as California Historical Landmark No. 1010, the original site of the Third Baptist Church, formerly the First Colored Baptist Church.

   California Office of Historic Preservation, listed resources
8. Nov 2008

   Permit 200811076106 $$$ $12,900

   Reroofing.

9. Apr 2024

   Issued Permit 202404059492 $$$ $45,000

   Kitchen and bathroom remodelled like for like.

10. Mar 2026

    Filed Permit 202512262682 $$$ $110,000

    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 here. One street-space permit at a nominal valuation is omitted from the timeline. Planning's historic resource survey names this parcel "SITE OF FIRST COLORED BAPTIST CHURCH; TH" — the dataset truncates the field at 40 characters. Grant Avenue was formerly Dupont Street. The building standing here now went up in 1907, after the church had left the site. Every roll year from 2018 through 2025 records this parcel at a 0.1 ownership share, so the assessed figures above are a partial interest, not the whole parcel. They are not charted on this page for that reason. The Argonaut has the congregation beginning its activities here in 1852; 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. The Argonaut dates the congregation's employment of its first pastor, the Reverend Charles Satchell, to 1854; the designation report dates it to 1856. What became of the church building itself, and whether the 1907 flats replaced it or a later structure. The architect and builder of the 1907 flats.