The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is an historic church and congregation which is located at 419 South 6th Street in Center CityPhiladelphia, 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.[3] It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972.[1]
In 1816, Rev. Richard Allen brought together other black Methodist congregations from the region to organize the new African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination. He was elected bishop of this denomination. After the American Civil War, its missionaries went to the South to help freedmen and planted many new churches in the region.
In 1838, the building was damaged during the riots that followed the destruction of Pennsylvania Hall.
Allen and his wife, Sarah Allen are both buried in the present church's crypt.[6] The current church building was constructed in 1888–1890, and it has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
On October 25, 2009, "The Great Gathering" took place at St. George's Church in which the community of Mother Bethel AME and St. George's congregations gathered for Sunday worship at St. George's for the first time since the historic walkout. The Rev. Dr. Mark Kelly Tyler preached for this service.[7][8]
The property was acquired for the new congregation in 1794. Its first building was a frame structure originally used as a blacksmith's shop, which was hauled to the site.
This building was later replaced by frame structures in 1805 and 1841. The 1841 church was reported to have a tunnel connecting it with a nearby Quaker meetinghouse to facilitate the movements of fugitive slaves.
The present building, which was completed in 1890, is a three-story masonry structure with Romanesque styling. Its large round-arch windows are adorned with stained glass from Germany.[9]
^"PHMC Historical Markers". Historical Marker Database. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
^Nash, Gary (1988). Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 112–113.
^Nash, Gary (1988). Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 118–119.
^"Sarah Allen". World Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
Singler, John Victor. 2022.『African American language and life in the antebellum North: Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel Church.』In Bettina Migge & Shelome Gooden (eds.), Social and structural aspects of language contact and change, 67–101. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6979331. Open access online.
Mother Bethel AME Church - Philadelphia, PA, Wanda Kaluza, 2:54
