Nestled in its Seton Hill neighborhood, the city’s oldest standing structure built by African-Americans remains a staple in the community. The Orchard Street Church dates its earliest history back to 1825. Truman Pratt, then a freeman, but born a slave in March 1775 at Hild’s Light, near Hope Chapel, started a prayer meeting, most likely in a dwelling. Pratt was not an ordained minister, but actively conducted church affairs for more than forty years. The original Orchard Street Church structure dates back to 1837, with subsequent additions in 1853 and 1865 as the congregation grew. The church was founded and organized by Truman Pratt, Basil Hall, and Cyrus Moore, all free Black men. City records cite the “Orchard Chapel” property as being deeded to Pratt, Hall, and Moore in September 1839. The building itself was erected by slaves and black freedmen who worked by torchlight in the night.

While its exact role is not certain, tunnels under the church were long associated with the Underground Railroad, and the Orchard Street Church was reportedly a stop on Harriet Tubman’s passage to freedom. Archaeology completed during the church’s restoration in 1992 uncovered one such space associated with the Underground Railroad, which has been made accessible by stairway. The tunnel under the Orchard Street Church is located near Pratt Street, where slaves were sold directly from the ships at the harbor, and lead to the old Mount Royal Station.

The Orchard Street Church was recognized as a separate Methodist church in the 1840’s. The church shared the services of rotating Black ministers who served under the appointment from White ministers of the older Methodist-Episcopal Black congregations such as Sharp Street and Dallas Street, now known as Centennial, Ashbury and John Wesley. Pre-abolition, two prominent ministers were shared. William Watkins, a famed abolitionist-teacher of national eminence, and John Fortie, a teacher and businessman of considerable wealth and prestige. In 1848, John Fortie was among Black ministers who asked that Black congregations be given full charge of their churches. During the Civil War, this reorganization of the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred, and the Orchard Street Methodist Church would be able to oversee its own congregation. Both “zealous and Godly” while being a slave, Pratt proved his temperament was better suited for freedom. He ran away from his owner, John Roy, around 1814. Pratt became a seaman for several years, and shipped out of Boston, but soon he desired to return to Baltimore. Upon his return, he twice attempted to purchase freedom from his owner, and eventually succeeded. At the Methodists’ Washington Conference of 1876, Pratt was honored. In the last few years of his life he was acclaimed by his fellow Methodists until his death in 1877, at the venerable age of 102.