"The historic African-American congregation of the Macedonia Baptist Church at 3240 Adams Street in Denver has been housed at this location since 1963. The buildings are locally significant under Criterion A in the areas of Ethnic Heritage: Black and Social History for the church's association with and role in Denver's civil rights struggle. The period of significance for Criterion A is for the year 1963, date of the move of the congregation to this location, to 1965, in accordance with National Register guidance. Among other civil rights luminaries over the course of the church's history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at this location in January 1964. The church and its educational annex are further locally significant under Criterion C in the area of Architecture for 1954, the year of their construction for a different congregation, as a fine example with excellent integrity of mid-century Modernism (Modern Movement) as applied to religious buildings designed by two Denver Modernist architects, Harlan E. Rathbun (education annex) and Ralph D. Peterson (church). The buildings feature abstract and figurative art glass, original mid-century materials, prominent use of brick with clerestory and steel-frame fenestration, and a horizontality grounding them in the landscape. This religious property meets Criteria Consideration A as it derives its primary significance from architectural distinction and historical importance as judged in secular terms." (from (
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"Founded in 1917, the African American congregation of Macedonia Baptist Church in Denver has played a vital community role at its Modernist church since 1963. Constructed in 1954 by Denver architects Harlan E. Rathbun and Ralph D. Peterson, the church building exemplifies mid-century Modern design with art glass, brick construction, ribbon windows, and dominant horizontality. Peterson also designed Calvary Temple on University Boulevard.
Originally built for the predominantly white Galilee Baptist Church, the building’s sale to Macedonia highlighted a widespread urban trend: relocation of white communities—so-called “white flight”—to the suburbs. The trend accelerated when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered school desegregation in 1973 following Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado, in which Latino and African American parents in Park Hill sued the school board, alleging a deliberate racially segregated system. This forced integration unintentionally resulted in de facto segregation as white families simply removed themselves from the city school systems.
Macedonia has long been at the forefront of the civil rights movement. On the occasion of its ninetieth anniversary in 2007, Electa Draper of The Denver Post wrote: “For 90 years, Macedonia Baptist Church has been more than a house of worship. It has been Denver’s hearth for the burning conviction that all souls are equal.” In a context where Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton (1923–44) was active in the Ku Klux Klan, Denver pioneers organized, as early as World War II, challenges to segregated restaurants—including the Brown Palace. Activists were effectively engaging in “sit-ins” before common use of
that strategy. Churches, including Macedonia, were a point of organization, community, and solidarity.
The church has often hosted national speakers as a source of inspiration for the local community. Reverend Joseph Griffin was a personal friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke at Macedonia on January 26, 1964. Other speakers have included the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr.; Coretta Scott King; Rosa Parks; Denver’s first African American mayor, Wellington Webb; Arie Taylor, the first African American woman elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives; U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress; and Dr. Ralph Abernathy, founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Macedonia has also hosted the NAACP, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and CORE. Current Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is a former congregation member.
In 1970, Denver renamed a stretch of 32nd Avenue, including that fronting Macedonia, as “Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.” Macedonia Baptist Church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 6, 2015." (from pg 16, (
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The NRHP form may be found at (
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