The Charles Street Meeting House has been attributed to Asher Benjamin due to its similarities to his Old West Church (WE1; 1806) on Cambridge Street. The cupola, three-story narrow arches, and carved wooden fans in the gable ends provide decorative flourishes to this brick-gabled block, although a balustrade with urns originally bordered the roof below the base of the cupola. Erected as the Third Baptist Church by a congregation with antislavery sentiments who used the nearby Charles River for baptisms, it later became the African Methodist Episcopal Church. With the widening of Charles Street in 1920 the church was moved west ten feet. John Sharratt Associates converted the building for commercial purposes that include his architectural office.