AUGUSTA, GA (WFXG) - The City of Augusta's Housing and Community Development department has announced the acquisition of a historic property that is central to the history of Augusta, Georgia.

The Rev. Charles T. Walker House, located at 1011 Laney-Walker Boulevard, has been purchased from Historic Augusta, Inc. The acquisition is part of the Laney Walker/Bethlehem Revitalization Project, which seeks to revitalize the historic neighborhoods of Laney Walker and Bethlehem in Augusta. A ceremony in honor of the purchase will take place on Wednesday, Mar. 15, at 11 a.m. 

Rev. Charles T. Walker was a highly respected community leader in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who founded the Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1885. The Richmond County Board of Education named a school in his honor in the 1930s. When Gwinnett Street was renamed Laney-Walker Boulevard in the 1970s, Rev. Walker and famed educator Lucy Craft Laney were chosen to be honored. Subsequently, the surrounding neighborhood and National Register Historic District were also named for Laney and Walker. Rev. Walker was known as "the Black Spurgeon" in reference to a famous British evangelist of that time, and his fame as a preacher and evangelist spanned continents.

Augusta Housing and Community Development says it will work to protect the heritage and ensure that it building remains a valuable asset. 

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