 The land on which the church sits was the Southside chapel of the 17th-century Varina Parish and the main church of Bristol Parish.Unlike many churches, probably because of the longtime settlement of several black slave and pre-war emancipated families living in the community over the many generations, the church served both blacks and whites, both rich and poor.Established by the Americans, the churched kept to its social segregation, requiring enslaved and free blacks to sit in the balcony while whites sat in the lower area.