Mount Gilead Baptist Church, a roughly 150-year-old African American congregation on the eastern edge of downtown Fort Worth, has taken the painful step of putting its historic brick sanctuary up for sale. Members have voted to seek a smaller, more sustainable home so the church can preserve its name and ministries even if the building changes hands. Now parishioners and preservationists are watching closely to see whether a future buyer treats the property as a landmark or just another downtown parcel.
According to Fort Worth Report, eligible members approved the sale in a 19–4 vote this year, and Pastor Lorenzo Jones IV, who was installed in 2019, told the congregation that proceeds would go toward purchasing a smaller building and supporting outreach and ministries. The outlet noted that members recently raised about $25,000 for repairs but still face major maintenance and accessibility costs. At a recent Sunday service, reporters counted roughly two dozen adults in the sanctuary.
What’s for sale
The downtown property at 600 Grove St. carries a $3 million price tag, according to the commercial broker listing. LoopNet describes the neo-classical, two-story sanctuary as an adaptive-reuse opportunity, flagging deferred maintenance and noting a raised basement that includes a non-usable indoor pool along with multiple classrooms and offices. The listing pitches the site for religious, nonprofit or redevelopment projects in Fort Worth’s central business district.
A 150-year history
The congregation dates to 1875, when a small group of formerly enslaved people organized what would become Mount Gilead Baptist Church. The brick, neo-classical sanctuary at Grove and East Fifth was completed in 1912–13. Historic Fort Worth notes that the building once housed a day nursery, library, gym and an indoor baptismal and pool, amenities that reflected the church’s central civic role in the city’s Black community. Architectural accounts differ: municipal preservation records list Sanguinet & Staats as the architects of record, while other architectural histories associate Wallace A. Rayfield with portions of the design. Historical photos and primary documents are available through the Portal to Texas History.
Why now
Pastor Jones told members that a string of sudden, costly repairs helped force the issue. He said galvanized steel pipes burst during the week of Thanksgiving, adding to an already long list of needs. With a short-staffed, aging membership, leaders concluded that long-term upkeep of the large complex was no longer realistic. The congregation tried fundraising and repairs, but those efforts, they said, would not cover necessary upgrades to HVAC, plumbing and accessibility. Church leaders have framed the sale as a difficult but necessary step to keep Mount Gilead’s ministry alive in a smaller location while the existing building goes to market.
Past disputes and legal context
The current sale effort follows a high-profile dispute in 2016, when a proposal to sell the building to a larger downtown congregation sparked a court challenge and a restraining order, according to Associated Press reporting cited by the Fort Worth Business Press. That clash highlighted fears about losing Black-owned landmarks as downtown development accelerates and underscored how difficult it can be for a small congregation to steward a sizeable historic property…