St. Paul’s is thought to be he oldest black congregation in Prince George’s
County. The original church was constructed in 1888. In 1915, the present
sanctuary, a small front gabled building with pointed arch towers and a
three-story corner tower, was built. The original church was destroyed in
the 1920s and replaced by a series of church additions. The church’s
congregation preceded the construction in 1888. Traveling clerics in the
late 18th century preached to a group of freed blacks in Oxon Hill who had
built their own meetinghouse. This group is believed to have a connection
to the African American Methodist congregation that in 1867 acquired the
land on which St. Paul’s was built.
