Built 1924 Opened 1924 | NRHP Reference # 11000481 Added to NRHP 28 July 2011 | |
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Location 401 I St., SE.
Washington, D.C. Architectural style Gothic Revival architecture Similar Folger Shakespeare Library, Arena Stage, Ford House Office Bui, Takoma station, Battery Kemble Park | ||
Saint Paul African Union Methodist Church is an historic structure located in the Navy Yard section of Washington, D.C., United States. It is the only congregation in the District of Columbia of the oldest incorporated, independent African- American denomination in the country. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
History
The African Union Methodist Protestant Church congregation that became Saint Paul's began as a prayer group in 1900. The church was designed by R.C. Archer, Jr., who was the second licensed African American architect in Washington. It was his first church commission in the city. The Gothic Revival style building was completed in 1924. Saint Paul’s is the only church that survives from a predominately working-class African American neighborhood in the Navy Yard area. It is also one of the area’s last surviving buildings from the first part of the 20th century. In the 1940s 700 units of public housing was built in the area and in the early 21st century mixed income townhomes have replaced the rest of the historic structures that surrounded the church.