the first african-american pastor for the congregation was richard fields. in 1859, after descendants of the "clotilde" settled in africatown, they also joined in with members of stone street baptist church. these descendants had ancestral roots in ghana and the kingdom of whydah, dahomey, located in present-day benin. in 1864, reverend benjamin franklin burke of richmond, virginia, became pastor and led the congregation for 38 years, until his death on september 27, 1902. it was burke who moved the congregation to 311 cleveland street in 1870. cleveland street was later changed to tunstall street in honor of former pastor dr. charles a. tunstall. reverend k. d. watkins, who pastored from 1907 to 1915, rebuilt stone street baptist church in 1909. the church received a major renovation in 1931 under the leadership of reverend m. c. cleveland.