Grant AME Church - Wentzville, MO
Posted by: YoSam.
N 38° 48.834 W 090° 50.762
15S E 687013 N 4298329
The Lincoln School, now Harris Automotive, was said to have been built on this churches property in 1895. This church was once called Rock AME, and is now Grant AME.
Waymark Code: WM16DJQ
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 07/08/2022
Views: 1
County of church: St. Charles County
Location of church: E Koenig St. & Cherry St., Wentzville
Phone: (314) 698-1191
Pastor: Pastor James Boler
"Immediately following Emancipation a black community developed on the eastern edge of Wentzville. A school for blacks was soon established in an old log church near present-day Linn Avenue. Beginning in 1880 school was held at newly erected Grant Chapel AM.E. Church (destroyed), directly behind the present location of Lincoln School, and approximately sixty feet east of the later Grant Chapel AME (c.1930), built on the same lot as the earlier structure.
"Oral sources insist that it was built on land belonging to the AM.E. church, although a deed could not be located. It would not have been unusual if the school was built on church property; often a church was not only the first school, but stood at the center of the black community, both figuratively and geographically. It was a logical location and in this case the lot easily accommodated another
building." ~ Wentzville Historic Survey PDF page 289
"The Grant Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church has
moved from its original location at the corner of East Koenig
Avenue and Cherry Street, but the building is still there. The
Church was established in 1868 in a log cabin located just south
of Wentzville along Highway Z (Church Street) next to Peruque
Creek. In 1887, under the leadership of Rev. William H
Hamilton, a building was erected at the corner of Cherry Street
and East Koenig Avenue. The designer of the building was Mr.
George Abington. A parsonage was later built from material of
the A.M.E. church in O'Fallon after its congregation had either
moved or died." ~ Wentzville Historic Sites