Founded by the Formerly Enslaved in 1875, Sold for $1.9 Million: A Fort Worth Church Holds Its Final Downtown Service

• Mount Gilead Baptist Church in downtown Fort Worth was founded in 1875 by Pastor C.A. Augustus and 12 formerly enslaved people.
• Its 1912 neoclassical building on Grove Street was designed by Wallace Rayfield, the second formally trained African American architect in the nation.
• The congregation voted 19 to 4 in summer 2025 to sell; Airport Field Services LLC is buying the building for $1.9 million.
• The church has worshipped at the William M. McDonald YMCA since February.

One of Fort Worth’s oldest Black congregations has said goodbye to its historic downtown home. KERA News, carrying a Fort Worth Report story by Marissa Greene, reported that Mount Gilead Baptist Church held a final service amid the sale of its building.

The church was founded in 1875 by Pastor C.A. Augustus and 12 formerly enslaved people. It first built near 15th and Crump streets, moved to 13th Avenue and Jones Street in the late 1880s and settled in its neoclassical building on Grove Street in the early 1910s. The building was designed by Wallace Rayfield, the nation’s second formally trained African American architect.

The congregation voted 19 to 4 in summer 2025 to sell. In April 2026 it received an offer from Airport Field Services LLC, which is buying the building for $1.9 million. The final service was set for May 31, 2026. Since February the congregation has worshipped at the William M. McDonald YMCA in southeast Fort Worth.

Pastor Lorenzo Jones IV said: “With this sale of this church, we have the opportunity to really get a fresh start, to be able to minister to a new generation of believers.” He added: “We can rebuild, and build a ministry that goes back to the root of what Mount Gilead stood for.” Michele McGregor, 70, a former youth director, said: “It’s a lot of history. There was a lot of love. Everyone cared for one another.”

Selling a historic building can give a congregation the money and freedom to rebuild its ministry, but it also ends a long connection to a place. Many of Jamaica’s oldest churches, founded by the formerly enslaved after emancipation, carry similar history. Congregations weighing a sale should consider how the history will be recorded and remembered, whether heritage protections apply, and what the proceeds will make possible. A clear vision for what comes next, as Mount Gilead’s pastor set out, helps members accept a painful decision.

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