METROFACTS “In the Beginning”

Rev. Henry Bailey, Metropolitan’s First Pastor, 1864-1870

Did you know that…
 

• during the Civil War several Civil War barracks were located in and around this neighborhood. One particular barrack was called McClellan’s Barracks (a.k.a. Camp Barker). Camp Barker was located between 12th and 13th Streets, NW and between Q and R Streets, NW. (Directly across the street from the present site of our church)
   

• Camp Barker, the initial location of the Freedman’s Hospital (now known as Howard University Hospital), was a collection of tents and barracks in an open field on 12th and R Streets.
   

• in 1864, in the midst of one of the District of Columbia’s then over-crowded, impoverished, crime infested, alley communities (a.k.a. Hell’s Bottom), God inspired ten souls including the Rev. Henry Bailey, to found what was then called the Fourth Baptist Church. Initially, worship meetings were held in the tents located across the street from Camp Barker.
   

• in 1865 these dedicated souls, with their limited financial means, purchased two lots of land across the street from Camp Barker for $2,500.00 and set out to build a house dedicated to worship God. They later changed their name to Metropolitan Baptist Church).
  
  The Metropolitan Baptist Church Historical Book Committee