St. James African Methodist Episcopal, St. Paul

The organization date for this congregation is uncertain, but it was organized under Thomas Wise from Chicago in order to create a group in Saint Paul under the Indiana Conference. William H. Brown, another important person in the church's history, had been a slave, soldier in a Black regiment, and a minister in Indiana. The Minnesota Historical Society records give the original date as 1870, whereas the church history says it was organized in 1876 and met initially in a one-room house occupied by one of its founders.  According to David Vassar Taylor in his Ph.D. dissertation “Pilgrim’s Progress: Black St. Paul and the Making of an Urban Ghetto, 1870-1930” (University of Minnesota, 1977, p. 165 ff), an AME church was organized in 1870 but had to disband for lack of members.  A second effort to organize was attempted in 1876 but lasted only a year.  Finally, in 1878 the congregation was able to reorganize and met for a  year in a room remodeled as a chapel in the basement of the Old Fellow’s Block on Fifth and Wabasha. In 1882, the group contained only 22 members whereas in 1889 the group boasted approximately 138 members. In the late 1880s, the organization was able to offer an extensive course in German when "all but a few of its members worked as domestic servants and common laborers [...] the goal of these programs was, of course, to escape a history too long characterized by poverty and illiteracy" (Butler). From the beginning, the church had affluent and influential Black members, and it was the only Black congregation to form without connections to white denominations. The congregation found a more permanent home when it decided to purchase an old synagogue, Sons of Abraham  (Mount Zion’s first building located at 10^th and Minnesota), and move it to a lot on the corner of Jay (now Galtier) and Fuller Streets.  At the time of the church’s dedication, it received its name, St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church.  The building underwent remodeling in the Gothic style but was badly damaged in a fire in 1908.  Following its repair, the congregation continued to use it until 1926 when a basement for a new church located at Dale and Central was dedicated.  The church’s superstructure was not completed until after World War II and totaled $11,000.  Eventually the church "challenged" Pilgrim Baptist as the most popular church in the Black community and the congregation remains an active presence in the neighborhood.

Current location:  624 W. Central Ave.

Timeline:

1870 or 1876:  Date of organization unclear, appears disbanded after two attempts

1878:  Finally organized and met for a year in the basement of OddFellows Block on 5^th & Wabasha

1890:  Purchased Sons of Abraham synagogue and moved it to the corner of Jay [now Galtier] & Fuller Sts.

1908:  Badly damaged in a fire.

1924:  Work began on the current church designed by AA architect Clarence Wigington

1926:  Basement dedicated; took 23 years to complete building.

1949:  Church completed at 624 W. Central Ave.

Clergy:  H. Burton 1879; W. H. Brown 1880; Daniel Brown 1889; John Henderson 1890; George W. Gaines 1898; J. C. Anderson 1900; R. B. Burley 1902; J. N. Bundy 1904; R. W. Reynolds 1905; R. S. Seymore 1906; Horace Graves 1908; H. P. Jones 1912; J. C. Anderson 1917; J. B. Sims 1920; H. L. P. Jones 1922; William H. Griffin 1924; William McClendon 1927; H. Mansfield Collins, 1928.