Soon after it was chartered in 1800, the Savannah Baptist Society built its first meetinghouse on Franklin Square, on the site now occupied by First African Baptist Church (5.3). The present church, designed as a Doric in antis structure with a square cupola, was similar to Carter’s Central Congregational Church in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts, which he was designing at the same time. (Both are also reminiscent of plate 57 in An Improved and Enlarged Edition of Biddle’s Young Carpenter’s Assistant [1833].) In 1921–1922 the steeple and interior gallery were removed, the former portico was transformed into a narthex, the hexastyle unfluted Corinthian portico (with Tower

of the Winds capitals) was added, and the entire exterior reclad in limestone. Both the 1966 and 2010 restoration campaigns involved installing steel beams in the roof structure; the latter, by J. T. Turner Construction, also revealed that the interior originally had decorative stenciling along the upper walls.