Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church is a historic

African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...

(A.M.E.) church located at 2013 Broadway in

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. The church's congregation was founded in 1848 by enslaved African Americans and, following emancipation in 1865, the church was organized as Texas's first A.M.E. congregation in 1866. Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church was one of locations of the public reading of

General Order No. 3 General Order No. 3 was an American legal decree issued in 1865 enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation to the residents of the U.S. state of Texas and freed all remaining slaves in the state. The general order was issued by Union General Gor ...

by Union general Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865 which officially declared emancipation in Texas. The annual celebration of this declaration among African Americans continues today as the

Juneteenth Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Deriving its name from combining "June" and "nineteenth", it is celebrated on the anniversary of General Order No. 3, i ...

holiday. The church's first permanent building was constructed in 1863, but it was destroyed in the 1885 Galveston Fire. The current church building was constructed in 1886 and was named for the congregation's second pastor, Reverend Houston Reedy, who hosted the church's first annual conferences starting in 1867. The church was listed as a

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the U.S. state of Texas. RTHL is a legal designation and the highest honor the sta ...

in 1975 and 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 1980 (updated in 1984). The church is listed for both its significance to Black history as well as its significance as a notable example of 19th century

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

.Julia J. Gribble "Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church," National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1984) The building is a survivor of the

1900 Galveston hurricane The 1900 Galveston hurricane, also known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood, and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm, is the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the third-d ...

References

External links

African Methodist Episcopal churches in Texas Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas National Register of Historic Places in Galveston County, Texas Gothic Revival church buildings in Texas Churches completed in 1886 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Churches in Galveston, Texas Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks {{Texas-church-stub

See also

References

External links