Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Community House - Baltimore MD - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

TEXT on the Historical Marker mounted on the church wall by the Mayor of the City of Baltimore:

"Sharp Street Memorial Church-Named in honor of its original location, Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church descends from the first black congregation in Baltimore. In 1797, blacks gatehred at 112-116 Sharp Street, where the Maryland Society for the Abolition of Slavery had opened the Baltimore African Academy, the city's first prominent day school for blacks. The Society later abandoned this project and sold the lot and building in 1802 to the black congregation, which then built a church on the property.

The church quickly became a center of the black community. There people gathered not only to worship, but also to discuss the abolitionist and African colonization movements, to raise money to purchase the freedom of slaves, to hear their advocates speak, and to receive schooling.

In 1846, the church hosted the first regional conference for black Methodists, which resulted in the first appointment of black pastors and the creation of a black governing board. From 1867 until 1872, the Centenary Biblical Institute (now Morgan State University) held classes there.

Following its congregation into northwest Baltimore, the church erected the present building designed by Alphonsus Bieler in 1898. In 1921, Arthur M. Segoin, a black architect, designed the adjacent Community House, the first of its kind in Baltimore."

Street address: 1206 Etting Street Baltimore, MD USA 21217 County / Borough / Parish: Baltimore City Year listed: 1982 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899 Historic function: Religion, Social Current function: Religion Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   09/14/2021 Don.Morfe visited it 05/25/2020 Searcher28 visited it

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