The space beneath the floor at Sandwich First Baptist
Not a ghost story tonight. Sandwich First Baptist Church was built in 1851 by its Black congregation, partly with bricks of Detroit River clay. Oral tradition says freedom seekers hid under its floor from slave catchers as people sang. (UWindsor)
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Witching Hour is our nightly local history and folklore feature. Ghost stories and legends are retold as stories people tell, not reported as fact. Sources are listed below the story.
A church built by its congregation
Black Baptists in Sandwich began meeting in homes in the early 1840s, and in 1847 they built a log church, according to historian Irene Moore Davis in the University of Windsor's The North Was Our Canaan project. Many members had escaped slavery in the United States. Others were free African Americans who left to escape racism and the fear of being captured and enslaved.
In 1851 the congregation built the brick church that still stands on Peter Street in west Windsor, on land donated by the Crown. Families either made a quota of bricks or gave money instead. Some members made bricks by hand from Detroit River clay and baked them in kilns, while others donated bricks they bought. The cornerstone was dedicated on Aug. 1, 1851, the 18th anniversary of emancipation in the British Empire, the Canadian Register of Historic Places says.
UWindsor says it is the only original church built by a Black congregation in the Underground Railroad era that remains within Windsor's city limits, and one of the oldest continuously active Black churches in Canada. It is a National Historic Site of Canada and a designated City of Windsor heritage property.
The space beneath the floor
Oral tradition holds that when slave catchers were seen nearby, members hid freedom seekers in a shallow space below the floorboards while the congregation sang to cover the sound. The heritage listing names a hidden trap door and crawlspace among the church's defining features. Visitors can often look beneath a section of the floor at the space where Underground Railroad travellers are said to have hidden. Written records of this are rare, since the work was kept secret.