The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church and congregation 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. Its present church, completed in 1890, is the oldest church property in the United States to be continuously owned by African Americans. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
The term Black Church refers to the body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African-Americans, as well as their collective traditions and members. The term can also refer to individual congregations.
The Allen Temple AME Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, is the mother church of the Third Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Founded in 1824, it is the oldest operating black church in Cincinnati and the largest church of the Third Episcopal District of the AME Church.
Quinn Chapel AME Church, also known as Quinn Chapel of the A.M.E. Church, houses Chicago's oldest African-American congregation, formed by seven individuals as a nondenominational prayer group that met in the house of a member in 1844. In 1847, the group organized as a congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States. They named the church for Bishop William Paul Quinn.
The St. Paul A.M.E. Church is a historic American Gothic Revival style African Methodist Episcopal Church located in Raleigh, North Carolina. A red brick and frame structure built in 1884 by black masons, St. Paul's was the first independent congregation of African Americans in Raleigh and is the oldest African-American church in Wake County, North Carolina. Before the end of the Civil War, the future founders of St. Paul's had been slave members of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church. The members of the church began calling their congregation "St. Paul's" in 1848. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 1987 and is also a Raleigh Historic Landmark.
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.
The Goodwin Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a historic church on Woodside Avenue in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is a member of the National African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church denomination, which is historically African American and began in the United States. The history of the Goodwin Memorial African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Zion Church in Amherst, Massachusetts is an important part of the broader context of African American history. The A.M.E. Zion denomination was created in conjunction with growing African American identities. Locally, the Goodwin Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church is one of the few physical structures that speaks to the rich African American history and heritage in the town of Amherst and surrounding areas.
The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a historic Methodist Episcopal Church at 2051 Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut. This High Victorian Gothic structure was built in 1873-74 for an Episcopal congregation, and has since 1926 been the home to the city's oldest African-American congregation, which was established in 1833. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
St. Peter's AME Zion Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at 615 Queen Street in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. It was built between 1923 and 1942, on the site of the 1914 church building which was destroyed by fire in 1922. It is a large three bay by seven bay, rectangular brick church building in the Late Gothic Revival style. It features a gabled nave flanked by two-story truncated stair towers. Also on the property is the contributing 1926 parsonage; a 2 1/2-story, frame American Craftsman style dwelling. It is known within the denomination as the "Mother Church of Zion Methodism in the South," and the oldest existing African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the South.
St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church building located at Fayetteville Street and Durham Expressway in the Hayti District, now a neighborhood of Durham, Durham County, North Carolina.
Pikeville Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is a historic African-American church on E. Valley Drive in Pikeville, Tennessee.
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, Marion County, Indiana.
AME Church of New Haven is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church located at 225 Selma Street in New Haven, Missouri. The church was built in 1893 for New Haven's AME congregation; founded in 1865, it was one of the first black churches in the city. Church member Anna Bell campaigned heavily for donations to build the new church building; Bell was also one of the new church's original trustees. After her death, the building was named the Anna Bell Chapel in her honor. The church, located in a predominantly African-American section of New Haven, maintained a congregation of roughly 20 people until 1960; during this time, it also served as a community center for the city's African-American community. After 1960, the church's congregation declined, and by the early 1990s the church had only four members.
The First Baptist Central Church in Okmulgee, Oklahoma is a historic Baptist church at 521 N. Central Avenue. It was built in 1915 and added to the National Register in 1984.
St. Mark's African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. St. Mark's has played a central role in Duluth's African-American community for more than 125 years. While other black organizations have dissolved or moved to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, St. Mark's has been a local mainstay.
Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church is an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church located at 902 Broadway in Lincoln, Illinois. The church was built in 1880 to house Lincoln's African Methodist Episcopal congregation, which formed in 1868. The building has a vernacular design with Gothic arched windows and entrances. As a black church, Allen Chapel served as a center of Lincoln's small African-American community. The church hosted the community's religious and social events, and as an AME church it provided AME publications to and helped educate its members. As Lincoln was both segregated and predominantly white for much of the church's early history, the church played an important role as one of the few organizations dedicated to improving the lives of the city's black residents. The church is still used for religious services.
People's Methodist Episcopal Church, also known at the Independent Missionary Baptist Church, is a historic church in Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado. Reverend Charles W. Homes was sent from Oskoloosa, Iowa by the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church to build churches in black communities. They church was formed on February 18, 1903 by a group of ex-slaves or children of ex-slaves and began meeting at the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Hall. The church was built in 1904 in a neighborhood that was predominantly African-American. Prominent early members include Jesse Bass, Lonnie Bassett, and Frank Loper.
Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church, whose present-day name is Roberts Park United Methodist Church, was dedicated on August 27, 1876, making it the oldest church remaining in downtown Indianapolis. Diedrich A. Bohlen, a German-born architect who immigrated to Indianapolis in the 1850s, designed this early example of Romanesque Revival architecture. The church is considered one of Bohlen's major works. Constructed of Indiana limestone at Delaware and Vermont Streets, it has a rectangular plan and includes a bell tower on the southwest corner. The church is known for its interior woodwork, especially a pair of black-walnut staircases leading to galleries (balconies) surrounding the interior of three sides of its large sanctuary. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1982. It is home to one of several Homeless Jesus statues around the world, this one located behind the church on Alabama Street.
