Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church was founded in the District of Columbia in 1838 and is the oldest A.M.E. church and the oldest continuously black-owned property in Washington, D.C., the Nation's Capital. It represents the merger of Israel Bethel A.M.E., founded in 1821, and Union Bethel A.M.E., founded in 1838, the latter of which was a stop on the Underground Railroad. These congregations merged in 1870, and the name Metropolitan was officially designated and recognized by the General Conference of the A.M.E. Church in 1872. The African Methodist Episcopal Church denomination, of which Metropolitan is a part, was founded in 1787 by Richard Allen in protest against segregated worship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and as the first African American independent religious body in the United States it was incorporated in 1816. The cornerstone of the present structure was laid in 1881, and the church was completed in 1886 with funding contributed by A.M.E. members throughout the United States. Their sacrificial gifts are memorialized in stained glass windows that document the growth of the African Methodist Episcopal Church from 1816 to 1896. The property's historic and cultural significance was nationally recognized when it was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 26, 1973. Metropolitan A.M.E. Church continues to embody its Christian Methodist covenant as a sanctuary welcoming all people of worship.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States