"According to Brother Pugh, Reverend Griffin was a personal friend of Dr. King, as evidenced by documentation at the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Archive. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Macedonia’s current building on Sunday, January 26, 1964 at 10 am (see Photos H11, H12). Later in the day he addressed the Denver Area Council of Churches at Montview Presbyterian at 1980 Dahlia Street (National Register-listed April 6, 2004, NRIS 20040406, 5DV.9034). In the interlude, local ministers were invited to a question and discussion group with Dr. King at 2:30 pm at Montview.
Prior to these events, Dr. King also spoke on Friday night to a crowd of 600 at the 148th anniversary banquet for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, held at the University of Denver Student Union and sponsored by Shorter Community AME Church (5DV.5305). In that address, Dr. King focused on the importance of passage of the civil rights bill then before the House Rules Committee as essential to realization of the American dream. Friday also saw a press conference and speech at Stapleton Field, where his plane arrived, focused on public accommodations and nonviolent protest." (from Section 8, pg. 21, (
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"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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