St. Philips Moravian Church rose in brick here in 1861. This is the oldest surviving African American church building in North Carolina, a brick church built in 1861 on the east side of South Church Street, near Race Street, here in Old Salem. You can feel how this place gathers layers of lives: a local black congregation first formed in 1822 built a log church just south of the 1773 Strangers Graveyard, designated an African American cemetery in 1816.
Between 1827 and 1831, white Single Sisters taught a Sunday school here until a state law forbade teaching literacy to slaves. The larger brick building you see was raised by Moravian leaders in 1861, and from its pulpit on May 21, 1865, Rev. Seth G. Clark of the 10th Regiment, Ohio Cavalry read General Orders 32, announcing freedom. In 1890 the church was enlarged with a central hall, classrooms on each side of the lower level and a large room above that opened onto the sanctuary.
St. Philips remained in continuous use until 1952, was restored in 2004 by Old Salem Museums & Gardens as an interpreted building, and now holds weekly worship services. Picture the brick facade and the street corners that frame this historic corner.