It was first chartered in 1848 as Rose Hill Baptist Sunday School and Church, on East 30th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues in Manhattan, New York City.

[1] Prominent Baptist Jeremiah Milbank – developer of condensed milk with inventor Gail Borden – and other congregational leaders, including the Colgate family, decided to move the church east in order to avoid the falling cinders emitted by the nearby Third Avenue elevated railroad.

[1] In 1885, following the death of Jeremiah Milbank, his wife, Elizabeth Lake Milbank, donated a memorial of stained glass windows by F. X. Zettler of Germany – sculptor of Infalbert's "Angel of the Gospel" statue – depicting the life, healing ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.

In 1930 the parish leased its property to be developed into the Roger Williams Hotel at 131 Madison Avenue, designed by Jardine, Hill & Murdock and named for the Baptist founder of Rhode Island, with the church sanctuary to be included in the 15-story building.

[5] In the early 1980s, MABC began the Sunday Afternoon Meal for Seniors (free meals for the midtown elderly) and also a Shelter for the Homeless, and in 1992 the church began ministries to persons with AIDS at Bellevue Hospital sponsored by the Bellevue Chaplains' Office.