St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal 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 ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

building located at Fayetteville Street and Durham Expressway in the

Hayti District Hayti (pronounced "HAY-tie"), also called Hayti District, is the historic African-American community that is now part of the city of Durham, North Carolina. It was founded as an independent black community shortly after the American Civil War o ...

, now a neighborhood of

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

Durham County, North Carolina Durham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 324,833, making it the sixth-most populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Durham, which is the only incorporated mu ...

. Started soon after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

by black workers, the Hayti District became a well-developed and self-sufficient black community, complete with a variety of businesses and services, including theatre, hospital and hotel.Washington, Booker T. "Durham, North Carolina, A City of Negro Enterprises," ''The Booker T. Washington Papers'', Volume 11: 1911-12. Louis R. Harlan and Raymond W. Smock, eds. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981. pp. 56-64 The church was built in 1891, by a congregation that had organized in 1869, brought together in meetings in a "brush arbor" organized by Edian Markham, a former slave and AME missionary. After building a couple of wooden structures, the congregation raised money for this brick church, including funds donated by white philanthropists.Louis Allston, "The History of St. Joseph’s AME Church and the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation"
St. Joseph Historic Foundation, 2012, accessed 19 June 2012 Edian Markham is buried in

Geer Cemetery Geer Cemetery (1876–1939), is an African-American cemetery located on Colonial Street between McGill Place and Camden Avenue in northeast Durham, North Carolina. It has also been known as City Cemetery, Old City Cemetery, East Durham Cemetery, a ...

. It was added to 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 1976. It is now used by the St. Joseph Historic Foundation as the Hayti Heritage Centre for cultural and community activities.

References

External links

Hayti Heritage Center
- St. Joseph's Historic Foundation
Hayti Heritage Center at Google Cultural Institute
Churches in Durham, North Carolina African Methodist Episcopal churches in North Carolina Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Churches completed in 1891 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Durham County, North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-church-stub