The Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church began as the First Baptist Church of Burton Homes, a federal wartime housing project managed by the Vancouver Housing Authority (Washington state). Most of the people in this 1945 photo of an early service were employees of the Kaiser Shipyards. The church moved to the Bagley Downs housing project later that year, then to Vanport City in 1946, and finally to the Albina neighborhood in Portland after Vanport was flooded in 1948. The current building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance to the history of civil rights in Oregon.

Rev. O.B. Williams leads services in 1961 for the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church in the Albina neighborhood, Portland.

The program for the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church annual observance of the Annual Women's Day (36th) was handed out to congregants on May 20, 1990.

The Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church stands on the southeast corner of N. Vancouver Ave. and Fargo Street. It was originally built in 1909 for the Central Methodist Episcopal Church. Vancouver Avenue (established in 1944) purchased the building in 1951 and inhabits it still. The church was renovated and enlarged in 1957-1958.