Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ was a congregation of the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...

located since 1880 in the Shaw neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The church building was completed in 1928 and is a historic structure that was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1995. The church is also listed on the city's African-American Heritage Trail. Due to changing demographics in the neighborhood, the church membership declined. It held its final service on September 30, 2018.

History

The congregation can trace its roots to the Lincoln Industrial Mission, which was founded as an educational and social aid mission after the American Civil War. The mission was built on this site in 1868-1869. In 1880 ten members of First Congregational Church established Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church at the mission. The congregation merged with Park Temple Congregational Church in 1901, and they took the present name. The

American Negro Academy The American Negro Academy (ANA), founded in Washington, DC in 1897, was the first organization in the United States to support African-American academic scholarship. It operated until 1928,Smith and encouraged African Americans to undertake classic ...

(ANA), the first major African-American learned society in the United States, was formed by the Rev.

Alexander Crummell Alexander Crummell (March 3, 1819 – September 10, 1898) was a pioneering African-American minister, academic and African nationalist. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in the United States, Crummell went to England in the late 1840s to raise money ...

and other intellectuals in 1897. It held its inaugural address in the church. Walter B. Hayson, one of the founders of the ANA and a protege of Crummell, directed the choir. Notable 20th-century musicians such as

Jessye Norman Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert ...

Marian Anderson Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to Spiritual (music), spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throu ...

and

Roberta Flack Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer. She topped the Billboard Magazine, ''Billboard'' charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like M ...

have sung at the church. Preachers and scholars such as

Julian Bond Horace Julian Bond (January 14, 1940 – August 15, 2015) was an American social activist, leader of the civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the e ...

and Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. have spoken from its pulpit. Many in the congregation were active during the civil rights era. The church allowed people attending the August 1963

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

to camp out in the church's auditorium. The church distributed clothes and food to people in the neighborhood during the riots that followed the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Its leaders had been active in the civil rights movement and working on social justice issues in the capital. For example, minister Channing Emery Phillips was also active in the Coalition of Conscience in D.C. He served as president of the Housing Development Corporation and supported full home-rule status for the District of Columbia. Because of the church's long significance in the District of Columbia, it has been listed as a site on the city's African-American Heritage Trail.

Final years

''The Washington Post'' cites retirement of its longtime pastor, the Rev. Benjamin E. Lewis, in 1994 as the beginning of the church's decline. This also coincided with demographic changes in the surrounding Shaw/ Logan Circle neighborhoods, which went from 65 percent African-American population in 1990 to 29 percent in 2010. The congregation attempted to appeal to the changed neighborhood, becoming an open and affirming church. It sponsored Saturday evening concerts with performances by the National Symphony and the Gay Men's Chorus, but concert-goers failed to return for Sunday services the next morning. Revised regulations that extended on-street parking restrictions to Sundays were also cited for the decline in church attendance.

Architecture

The present church building was designed by

Howard Wright Cutler Howard Wright Cutler (1883–1948) was an American architect known primarily for his designs of churches, schools and public buildings in Washington, D.C. and adjacent Montgomery County, Maryland. Early life and education Cutler was born in Oura ...

in the Italian

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style. It was completed in 1928. The building features a basilican plan with arched windows. The exterior has variegated brick and a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof. The west

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

of the church is dominated by a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

and an arcaded portico. The portico features stone columns with foliate Byzantine capitals,

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

and a tile roof. It was listed on the

in 1995.

References

External links

Church website
{{National Register of Historic Places Washington Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ churches in Washington, D.C. Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Romanesque Revival church buildings in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Washington, D.C.