March 3, 2024

Bethel A.M.E. Church, Harrisonburg

On E. Kelley Street.



The numbers over the door appear to say 1893, but it could be 1883. The Valley Black Heritage Tour brochure says it was built around 1885 by local carpenters who had been enslaved in Elkton at one time. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is said to have been the first independent Protestant denomination in the United States to be founded by Black people. The denomination has roots in Philadelphia in the early 19th century. I have seen quite a few AME churches in Virginia.


7 comments:

  1. Lovely church, the windows are beautiful.
    Take care, enjoy your day and have a great week ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad that they were able to use the skills taught by their kind and benevolent former owners. Lovingly, they built a church. (Revisionist History 101).

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...team up and slow down, amen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A beautiful building, and I like their stained glass too. The enslaved peoples who built many beautiful buildings haven't any way of being given credit, beyond being named as the artisans of much of what the southeast built before they were freed at the Civil War.

    ReplyDelete

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