Asbury United Methodist Church - View this location on map  Third sanctuary of one of the city's most influential African-American churches, historically associated with the development of Methodism; reflects city's social history through abolition, emancipation, reconstruction, and the civil rights movement; city's oldest African-American church to remain on its original site; early history records striving for independence from white-controlled church leadership; established in 1836 as the Asbury Aid Society by black parishioners from Foundry Methodist Church (an integrated congregation established 1814); gained official recognition in 1845; finally dedicated as an independent pastorate in 1869, named for Methodist evangelist Bishop Francis Asbury (originally Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church); mother church of John Wesley AME Zion and other churches; active in providing educational and missionary assistance after the Civil War; pastors have included J.E.W. Bowen, Matthew W. Clair (promoter of Asbury as the 'National Church of Negro Methodism'); congregants have included Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, other notables; established city's first interracial apartments (1947); built 1915-16 on site of original wooden church (1836) and larger brick church (1845); Gothic Revival, granite and limestone with corner tower, buttressed facades, stained glass windows; Clarence L. Harding, architect 11th and K Streets, NW, Washington , DC Historical |