The church was founded in 1883 to serve neighborhood children and designed in a Richardsonian Romanesque style in 1899 by prominent regional architect Warren Hayes. By the 1920s, Calvary grew into a large congregation home to many prominent locally businesspersons as Minneapolis emerged as a national leader in flour production. Whittier became a more diverse working-class community in the 1930s and 1940s, prompting many wealthier members of Calvary to leave the neighborhood. Yet with the support of neighborhood partners, the Calvary congregation decided not to relocate to the suburbs and instead remained committed to Whittier.

Today, Calvary embraces its core value of “radical hospitality” to foster multicultural relationships, advocate for justice, and demonstrate its commitment to the continuously changing and gentrifying neighborhood. Located 1 mile from where George Floyd was murdered and just blocks from where riots destroyed many businesses in 2020, Calvary leads a Racial Justice and Healing Initiative and cultivates partnerships with BIPOC businesses. The church also supports an affordable interfaith preschool, hosts Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and provides safe spaces for counseling for LGBTQ and BIPOC people. Additional community partnerships are fostered through The Prodigal Public House, a nearby gathering place which the pastor and his wife founded in 2019. 

A National Fund grant of $200,000 with $400,000 in matching funds raised by the congregation will allow the congregation to complete steeple and exterior masonry repairs for water management purposes. This work continues a decade of building investments aimed at reinforcing the church’s long-term commitment to its community.

Calvary Baptist Church by Jackie Adelmann Photography