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The Origin of St. John AME  The St. John African Methodist Episcopal (AME) is the first independent AME church in Baltimore. The congregation of St. John AME Church was organized in Baltimore 1855 and received formal recognition from the AME Conference in 1873.
St. John AME's first place of worship was Tessier Street, formally a blacksmith shop. Rev. George Watkins, the first pastor licensed to preach from the little church, formalized and stabilized the mission and built a new church on Tessier and Orchard Streets; the structure serves as a church today. It was during Rev. Nicholson's administration that the mission, operating from its new structure, received formal recognition from the AME Conference and officially became St. John AME Church (1873). In 1894 St. John relocated to Lexington Street, a more spacious building, where it served as St. John's place of worship under 13 pastors before moving to its current location on Carrollton Avenue in 1929. The church, as it stands today, was dedicated in 1929, and the new cornerstone was laid in 1931. The building currently occupied by St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1878-9 and was first known as Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, which included a ministry for teen-aged boys that focused on all sorts of social, athletic, cultural and charitable activity. The organization was called the Grachur. We believe that the organization, though much changed, continues today. The building was sold to St. John , the first independent AME Church in Baltimore , around 1928/29 under the pastorate of Rev. E.D. Rice. St. John was dedicated in 1929 and the new cornerstone was laid in 1931. From Trials to Triumph Nineteen forty-three was a year of hardship for the nation and for St. John AME Church . The nation suffered under hard times during the Roosevelt administration. The polio epidemic killed 1,115 and crippled thousands and rations resulting from World War II, spread across the globe. On March 3, 1943 , eight months after Rev. Harrison Bryant became pastor; St. John AME Church was destroyed by fire. This was during WWII and it was difficult to obtain labor and materials to rebuild the church, as all resources were reserved for the war. Despite these odds, the St. John congregation, under the leadership of Rev. Bryant, rebuilt the church. On April 15, 1945 Rev. Bryant triumphantly led the congregation back into the rebuilt Carrollton Avenue site. The congregation commemorated the post-fire reconstruction of the church and other significant events in the congregation's history with a memorial stone inserted into the building's exterior wall. The stone acknowledges the bishop, pastor, trustees and others who were involved in the restoration effort. St. John AME Church is no stranger to challenge. As we press forward to provide services to the Lafayette Square/Harlem Park Community in the 21 st Century, we continue face the challenge of limited resources and the need to maintain our church structure. St. John AME Church is steeped with rich history and the divine majesty of pastors who have made significant contributions to the historic St. John AME Church. (click here to review the history of pastors of St. John AME Church). In October of 2005 St. John AME Church will celebrate its 150th year anniversary and the spirit of tenacity and determination is alive and well. Lafayette Square - A Spiritual Center for West Baltimore 's African-American community.  St. John's historical significance is multi-dimensional. In addition to being the first independent AME Church in Baltimore, and one of the leading African American Episcopal Churches in Baltimore City, St. John is also part of rich cultural and architectural history of the Lafayette Square Community.
Four African-American congregations settled around Lafayette Square area between 1928 and 1934. Metropolitan United Methodist Church led the charge with a ceremonial march from Orchard Street in 1928, followed by St. John AME in 1929 (from Lexington Street), St. James Episcopal in 1932 (from Park Avenue and Preston Street), and Emmanuel Christian Community in 1934 (from Calhoun Street). The spacious sanctuaries, the classrooms, and other amenities of the four grand churches suited the needs of these growing congregations, whose active ministries transformed Lafayette Square into a spiritual center for West Baltimore 's African-American community. The old State Normal School , vacated in 1915 and later converted to school district offices, received a new lease on life in 1931 as the home of the George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School , the first school in Maryland to provide vocational training to African-Americans. |
