National Historic Landmark - Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church

Founded in 1793, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1889) is a living memorial to Richard Allen (1760-1831), former slave, Methodist minister, preeminent Black leader, and founder of the first permanent national association of Afro-Americans, the Free African Society, in 1787.

Allen bought the land and founded Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church to let African Americans worship in their own way.

The church has served the African-American community as a social organizer, championing racial equality and civil rights on the local and national level.

It served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and has hosted many famous leaders including Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Rosa Parks, and Colin Powell, among others.

The Mother Bethel Foundation received a 2004 federal Save America's Treasures matching grant in the amount of $ 450,000 to address structural problems in the monumental bell tower, repair the slate roof and repair damage from water infiltration.

Courtesy National Park Service National Historical Landmarks