Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Community House is a historic
United Methodist church located at
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
,
Maryland,
United States. It is an 1898
Gothic Revival
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 ...
stone structure of massive proportions. It features sharply pitched gables, a square parapeted 85-foot-high
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
, lancet windows, and Gothic influenced interior decorative detailing. The Community House is a
Georgian Revival influenced brick structure, four stories high and built in 1921. The congregation was organized in 1787 and was highly influential in the antebellum freedom movement, the establishment of the first black school in Baltimore after the abolition of slavery, and the movement to foster the institution of the African American Methodist church.
It is known as the "Mother Church" of Black Methodism in Maryland.
The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, during their formative years, held their meetings at this historic church.
Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Community House was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
See also
*
African Academy and Sharp Street Methodist Church (1797–1898)
References
External links
*
*
*, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust
Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church website
Churches in Baltimore
United Methodist churches in Maryland
Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore
African-American history in Baltimore
Gothic Revival church buildings in Maryland
Churches completed in 1898
19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States
1898 establishments in Maryland
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
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