Bethel AME Church (Iowa City, Iowa)

Last updated
Bethel AME Church
Bethel AME Iowa City.jpg
The church in 2009 before the expansion project
USA Iowa location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location411 S. Governor St.
Iowa City, Iowa
Coordinates 41°39′22″N91°31′23″W / 41.65611°N 91.52306°W / 41.65611; -91.52306
Built1868
NRHP reference No. 00000925 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 27, 2000

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African American congregation and building in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The congregation was established in 1868 mostly by free people of color from the south and the rest from the north. James W. Howard, a member of the congregation, bought property in a recent addition to the city and sold the southern half to the church for $50. [2] This white frame church was built on the property the same year. Iowa City has always had a small African American community and over the years the congregation grew and declined in numbers and in finances. The original church, which is 600 square feet (56 m2) and has room for 50 people, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. [1] The congregation outgrew the small church and a new 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) sanctuary was built in 2010 that holds three times the current congregation's size. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church</span> Historic church in Pennsylvania, United States

The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is an historic church and congregation which is located at 419 South 6th Street in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The congregation, founded in 1794, is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church (Selma, Alabama)</span> Historic church in Alabama, United States

Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church is a church at 410 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Selma, Alabama, United States. This church was a starting point for the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 and, as the meeting place and offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the Selma Movement, played a major role in the events that led to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The nation's reaction to Selma's "Bloody Sunday" march is widely credited with making the passage of the Voting Rights Act politically viable in the United States Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Parsonage</span> Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Parsonage is an historic church and parsonage at 6 Sever Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation, founded in 1866, is one of a small number of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregations in eastern Massachusetts, and is an enduring component of the small African-American community in Plymouth. Its church, built about 1840 as a commercial building and consecrated in 1870, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)</span> United States historic place

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. The congregation was established in either 1870 or 1871, which makes this the oldest historically African American church in the city. It had 23 pastors from its inception to 1928, which followed the African Methodist Episcopal Church's practice of itinerant pastors. The congregation grew slowly over this same period. Many African Americans came to Cedar Rapids after the coal industry in Southern Iowa began to collapse. The Rev. Benjamin Horace Lucas, who became pastor here in 1928, was also a catalyst for growth in the congregation. Completed in 1931, this brick Colonial Revival structure replaced a wood-frame structure from 1876. Since its completion, it has served the social and religious needs of the community. It is one of the few surviving links to Cedar Rapid's early African American community as this neighborhood has been nearly obliterated by the development of Mercy Medical Center. The church building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel AME Church (Reading, Pennsylvania)</span> Historic church in Pennsylvania, United States

Bethel AME Church, now known as the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 119 North 10th Street in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1837, and is a 2½-storey brick and stucco building with a gable roof. It was rebuilt about 1867–1869, and remodeled in 1889. It features a three-storey brick tower with a pyramidal roof topped by a finial. The church is known to have housed fugitive slaves and the congregation was active in the Underground Railroad. The church is now home to a museum dedicated to the history of African Americans in Central Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Anthony's Catholic Church (Davenport, Iowa)</span> United States historic place

St. Anthony's Catholic Church is a parish church in the Diocese of Davenport. The parish complex is located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States, at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets. It is the first church congregation organized in the city of Davenport and the second Catholic congregation, after St. Raphael's in Dubuque, in the state of Iowa. The parish buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church Complex in 1984. The designation includes the church and the former school building, which is the parish's original church building and the oldest standing church building in Iowa. The designation also included the rectory, which was partially torn down in 2009. The complex was also listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1992 as St. Anthony's Church Square. The property has been known historically as Church Square. In 2020 the parish buildings, except for the parish center, were included as contributing properties in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District. Because of its recent construction date, the parish center is excluded as a contributing property.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Springtown, New Jersey)</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Springtown, New Jersey, United States. The church was part of two free negro communities, Othello and Springtown, established by local Quaker families, like the Van Leer Family. The congregation was established in 1810 in Greenwich Township as the African Methodist Society and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1817. A previous church building was burned down in the 1830s in an arson incident and the current structure was built between 1838 and 1841.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel AME Church (Davenport, Iowa)</span> United States historic place

Bethel A.M.E. Church is located in Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christ Temple AME Zion Church</span> Historic church in Tennessee, United States

Christ Temple AME Zion Church, also known as Belmont Annex Fellowship Hall, is a historic African-American church at 235 E. Meeting Street in Dandridge, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Paul Lutheran Church (Davenport, Iowa)</span> Church in Iowa, United States

St. Paul Lutheran Church is located in central, Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The church's original property, which subsequently housed other Protestant congregations, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, but has since been torn down. The present complex was built in 1952 and contains two buildings that are contributing properties in the Vander Veer Park Historic District. The present church building was completed in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Coffeyville, Kansas)</span> Historic church in Kansas, United States

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 202 W. 12th Street in Coffeyville, Kansas, in the original black neighborhood of Coffeyville. It was built in 1907 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel A.M.E. Church (Indianapolis, Indiana)</span> Historic church in Indiana, United States

The Bethel A.M.E. Church, known in its early years as Indianapolis Station or the Vermont Street Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. Organized in 1836, it is the city's oldest African-American congregation. The three-story church on West Vermont Street dates to 1869 and was added to the National Register in 1991. The surrounding neighborhood, once the heart of downtown Indianapolis's African American community, significantly changed with post-World War II urban development that included new hotels, apartments, office space, museums, and the Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis campus. In 2016 the congregation sold their deteriorating church, which will be used in a future commercial development. The congregation built a new worship center at 6417 Zionsville Road in Pike Township in northwest Indianapolis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel Church (Morning Sun, Iowa)</span> United States historic place

Bethel Church is a historic church building in rural Morning Sun, Iowa, United States. The congregation was organized by the Wapello mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Iowa in 1854. In addition to the Morning Sun congregation, the Wapello mission included congregations in Concord, Long Creek, and two in Wapello. The property for the church building and its adjacent cemetery was donated by Merit Jamison. Members of the congregation built the building under the supervision of stonemason Francis McGraw. The limestone structure is a Vernacular form of Iowa folk architecture. The small cornice returns are influenced by the Greek Revival style. The plain interior features plastered walls, plank flooring and wood-carved furnishings from the church's early years. The iron fence that runs along the gravel road was added in 1861. The church is no used for regularly scheduled services. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel AME Church (Reno, Nevada)</span> Historic church in Nevada, United States

Bethel AME Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 220 Bell Street in Reno, Nevada. It has served as a hub for Reno's African American community since it was built in 1910 for early black settlers. In addition to its role as a religious and community center, it functioned as a resource center for black divorce seekers who faced difficulties in a segregated city during the middle decades of the twentieth century. In the 1960s, during the American civil rights movement, the church provided a meeting place for the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other civil rights activists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Vicksburg, Mississippi)</span> Historic church in Mississippi, United States

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church located at 805 Monroe Street in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1992; and is listed as a Mississippi Landmark since November 10, 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Bethel A.M.E. Church (New Orleans, Louisiana)</span> Historic church in Louisiana, United States

The Union Bethel A.M.E. Church in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 2321 Thalia St. at the corner of Liberty St., is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel AME Church of Crawfordsville</span> Historic church in Indiana, United States

Bethel AME Church of Crawfordsville is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana. It was built in 1892, and is a one-story, gable fronted frame building on a brick foundation. It features a large round-arched window and two-story, square corner tower. Portions of the building are believed to date to 1847. Also on the property is a contributing one-story, Queen Anne style cottage that served as the original parsonage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel A.M.E. Church (Richmond, Indiana)</span> Historic church in Indiana, United States

Bethel A.M.E. Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana. The congregation was founded in 1836. The church was built in 1854, and enlarged and remodeled in the Romanesque Revival style with a mix of Neo-classical elements in 1892–1894. It is a one-story, cruciform plan, brick building with a 2+12-story bell tower. The church serves as an educational, political, and cultural center for the local African American community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church</span> Historic church in Connecticut, United States

The Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, is a historic church building and congregation at 44 Lake Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1882, the congregation was Greenwich's first African-American congregation of any denomination, and remains a center of African-American society in the town. Its current church, built in 1921 on the site of its first church, is a good example of Late Gothic Revival architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceres Bethel AME Church</span> Historic church in Maryland, United States

Ceres Bethel AME Church was built near Burkittsville, Maryland in 1870, for an African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) congregation. The wood frame church fell into disuse in 1984, but its cemetery continues in use. Located at the site of the Battle of South Mountain, it has been recognized as one of Maryland's most threatened historic place.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Jan Olive Nash. "Bethel AME Church". National Park Service . Retrieved 2017-05-06. with photos
  3. Rachel Gallegos (February 25, 2010). "Bethel A.M.E. works hard on project". Iowa City Press-Citizen . Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved 2010-02-25.