[1] St. Louis Street Missionary Baptist Church began as a part of Mobile's African Baptist Church, located near the intersection of Springhill Avenue and Ann Street.

The congregation was active by 1836, constructed its own building by 1839, and eventually became known as the Stone Street Baptist Church.

[2] The first pastor for the church was the Reverend Joshua Hawthorn, a white Baptist minister.

The congregation built the current building in 1872, with the design by C. L. Hutchinsson, a local architect.

The new building was host to the seventh Colored Baptist Convention of Alabama in 1874, a meeting that lead to the formation of Selma University in 1878.