Second Baptist Church Historic Structure Report

This project is important to the Second Baptist congregation as the building remains an active church, as well as an important part of the African American history of Los Angeles. This report aims to serve as a roadmap to ensure the Church’s long-term stability, endangered by age and its dwindling congregation.

The Church continues to serve as a guiding light to the Los Angeles community, with its long-standing presence serving as a physical anchor to those migrating out west as part of the Great Migration, and later as host for NAACP national conventions and for speeches given by Black intellectuals and luminaries during the Civil Rights movement, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places California Register of Historical Resources, and as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. With its continuous presence in the community despite the rapidly changing surrounding demographics, the congregation today provides support to the South Central neighborhood including weekly food drives, low-income housing, annual community gathering activities, in addition to ongoing worship services and related religious events.

This report effort reflects cross-disciplinary technical collaboration in the service of historic preservation. ESA served as the report author, combining technical assessments from the project team into a single, concise document. The HSR Project included comprehensive updates to architectural, structural, mechanical, engineering, plumbing, and siting assessment, as well as extensive documentation efforts to capture current conditions, including measured drawings, professional photography, drone capture, 3D scanning and model development, and the development of an updated and restructured analysis of the character-defining features (CDF). Prepared by a team of technical experts, the report includes a long-term maintenance plan along with rehabilitation recommendations to address identified building deficiencies, designed with sensitivity to ensure future modifications to the Church will meet code and accessibility requirements while retaining historic integrity. Capital project and preservation treatment recommendations were also included with corresponding cost estimates and an example phased construction schedule.

Support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund reflects the importance of this building within American history, and the recommendations set forth in the report will provide the congregation with a thorough, prioritized and manageable path to ensure its continued preservation in this sacred space.