ATLANTA — Members of Friendship Baptist Church, Atlanta, gathered for the last time May 25 in a historic building being demolished to make way for a new Atlanta Falcons football stadium.
Friendship Baptist, established in 1862 and independently organized as Atlanta’s first autonomous black Baptist congregation after the Civil War in 1866, voted in 2013 to sell its home since 1871 for $19.5 million. The building will be demolished to clear the site for a new $1.3 billion retractable-roof stadium scheduled to open for the 2017 NFL season.
The congregation will meet temporarily at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse while working to acquire land for a permanent location.
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