Butler’s historic Shiloh Baptist Church demolished
A dilapidated piece of Butler history with a connection to slavery and the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln faded farther into memory Tuesday.
The demolition of the 110-year-old Shiloh Baptist Church on Hayes Avenue, which was the first Black church in the county, began early Tuesday morning
Condemned in 2020 by the city after seeing its last worshippers in 2019, the church was placed in the conservatorship of the Butler County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which received court approval in March 2024 to demolish the building.
“The walls were bowing out,” said Ed Mauk, authority executive director. “We were worried that a heavy snow would bring it down.”
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Shiloh Baptist, a longtime church with historic significance in Butler, was demolished along Hayes Avenue on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
The authority considered the building a safety hazard due to its condition, concerns over unauthorized entry and potential flooding from Sullivan Run, which borders the property, he said.
Mauk said there are no immediate plans for the lot after demolition is finished, but court approval is required for any plans.
Shiloh Baptist Church was the home church of Lettie Hall, who was the wife of pastor David Brown Dade.
Hall was enslaved by Confederate sympathizer Dr. Samuel Mudd of Charles County, Md., who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth when he fled the Ford’s Theatre after assassinating Lincoln in 1865.
According to an article by local historian Bill May, Hall prepared a meal for Booth as he was fleeing pursuers.
Mudd was convicted of aiding and conspiring in a murder by a military commission for helping Booth and was sentenced to life in prison. He was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson in 1869.
After Hall married Dade, she lived in Butler for the next 14 years. She died in 1936 at the family residence in the Island section of the city and was buried in an unmarked grave in Butler's Rose Hill Cemetery, until the Dr. Samuel Mudd Society erected a stone marking her final resting place several years ago.
Eugene Ludwik, who lives near the old church, said he believes the building could have been saved.
“I’ve been inside. Just needed some TLC,” Ludwick said.
He said 2019 was the last time the church was in use.
