Since its founding in 1885 by Black residents of Tarrytown and its neighbors, Shiloh Baptist Church has had an all-Black congregation. It is the second oldest church for the African American community of Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.

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Across the US, the Black church, as an institution, has a history of social justice. When the congregation founded Shiloh, there was high racial tension in the Tarrytown area and the country in general. A part of Shiloh’s history includes holding public meetings in the early 1900s for the Colored Protective League to organize for the protection, safety, and quality of life for Black people. 

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This League had the word “protective” in it because, at the time, Black people needed protection from racially-motivated harassment from their White neighbors and government in Tarrytown and North Tarrytown areas.

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And, fun fact:  Shiloh Baptist Church is the result of an adaptive reuse project. From 1884 to 1890, the building was Smith’s Opera House, one of the first “public houses” of Tarrytown. The congregation completed church renovations in 1892. For a town the size of Tarrytown, an opera house to church conversion was quite unusual at that time.

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Shiloh Baptist Church is a Tarrytown local landmark and a recent recipient of a Sacred Sites grant from the New York Landmarks Conservancy.