History

In 1850, this African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church rose on Fifth Street, built in the Greek Revival style. Black ownership was a key component of the national AME church. This lot was purchased in 1845 by free Black
trustees, including the Rev. William Douglas, who owned the brick house next door.  

That independence set the AME Church apart from the
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church on Walnut Street, which was funded and controlled by white trustees of
Wesley Chapel, who also hired its preachers.

 

William Anderson, author of 24 Years a Slave, claimed he helped build this brick church although he became a
minister at the Walnut Street church. He later explained that he left the Colored ME congregation because of pressure to stop aiding freedom seekers. He refused, saying, “In the Bible we are commanded to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and no mention is made of color or condition.” Anderson eventually joined the  AME church and was given a circuit, organizing Sabbath Schools.  He built his second home beside the church, where his widow Julia lived into the late 1880s. Their small brick home was gone by 1914.

Education was a vital mission here. A pay school operated from the basement at $1 a month with night classes also being offered for adults after the Civil War. By 1880, this congregation stood among three Black churches active in the Jefferson County Bible Society.

In 1926, the congregation merged with St. Stephen’s AME in Hanover, and this building became home to the Pilgrim Holiness Church. Converted into apartments during WWII, it was then purchased by Historic Madison, Inc. in 2001 and restored in 2006. Today, leased to the Madison Reformed Congregation, this landmark once again serves as a place of worship.

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Legal: Ticket bearers release all private homeowners from any claims that might arise from participation in the Nights before Christmas Candlelight Tour of Homes.