Dandridge and other archaeologists from Colonial Williamsburg last week began excavating the site of the old First Baptist Church, one of the oldest such churches in the country, which had buildings there in 1856, though perhaps as early as 1818, and was organized in 1776.
The 1856 church — whose bell was used to dedicate the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington four years ago — was torn down in the 1950s. But its foundation and that of two earlier structures, one possibly a privy, have been detected underground.