The year was 1885. Less than twenty years earlier, the Civil War ended, and the South was in a period of recovery. Formerly enslaved people left the plantations and rural areas and settled in urban areas like Nashville. These settlements formed the nuclei of major Black communities such as North Nashville. Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church had its beginning when a loyal band of Christians---Irene Smart, Bill Smith, Ed Marshall and others---formed the West Cedar Street Baptist Church. It was one of sixteen Black Baptist churches organized by the end of the 1880’s. For ten years they worshipped in a building on Cedar Street, experiencing hardships and struggles. In 1895, beset by internal difficulties, the group that was to become our mother church decided to relocate near the Stock Yard at the corner of 17th Avenue North and Lyon (now Jo Johnston) Avenue. God sent Reverend A. W. Porter as its first pastor.

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Reverend A. W. Porter (1895-1931)Reverend Porter was a strong and dynamic leader who provided direction and guidance, enabling it to maintain a position of leadership down through the years. To raise funds for the purchase of our first church building, Rev. Porter held the first revival service at a livery stable at 17th Avenue North and Cedar Street. By 1900, the church had its first permanent church home---a frame structure on Stonewall Street (later to become Fifteenth Avenue). The church continued to progress, and Reverend Porter continued to make his ministry felt at Fifteenth Avenue, in Nashville, as well as throughout the denomination. When he suffered failing health in 1929, the church called Reverend Walter R. Murray as Acting Pastor.