VCU Medical Center

Broad Street and 12th Street

The VCU Medical Center station on the GRTC Pulse bus route, is located in front of the nation’s top teaching hospitals, VCU Medical Center. People from all over the Commonwealth and beyond visit VCU Medical Center to receive top rated medical assistance.

Featured Places of Interest

• VCU Health
• Downtown food trucks
• The Valentine
• Monumental Church
• Virginia Governor’s Executive Mansion
• Capital Square

Explore the Past

First Baptist Church / First African Baptist Church:

First Baptist Church, 1802-1876 (The Valentine, Cook Collection)

First Baptist Church, early-20th century (The Valentine, Cook Collection)

The white Greek Revival building directly behind the VCU Medical Center Westbound GRTC Pulse Station was the second location of First Baptist Church, which was established in 1780 with a mixed-race congregation. In 1841, the church’s white members sold the original church building at Broad and College streets to the church’s black members, and moved about a block west into this new building. The original church building, which was renamed First African Baptist Church and continued to serve its free and enslaved black congregation, was replaced by a red-brick and gray-roofed structure in 1876. Prominent members of First African Baptist Church have included blacksmith Gilbert Hunt, Henry “Box” Brown, Maggie L. Walker and former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. Today, the congregations of First Baptist Church and First African Baptist Church have relocated to other parts of the city, and their former church buildings are owned by VCU. (First Baptist Church, corner of Broad and 12th streets, <0.1 mile. First African Baptist Church, northeast corner of Broad and College streets, 0.1 mile.)

Explore More of the Past for VCU Medical Center!