{"nrhp_refnum":"72001166","name":"Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"419 6th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Philadelphia","county":"Philadelphia","state":"PA","lat":39.94324218500003,"lon":-75.15185862199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-03-16","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1974-05-30","areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church is a church building at Sixth and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The present structure, with a granite three-story front and a four-story tower, was built on the site of earlier churches after 1889.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is significant as the mother church of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, founded by Richard Allen in 1793. It also cites the building's Victorian Romanesque Revival design and its stained glass windows made in Heidelberg, Germany. The document further links the site to the underground railway, through a tunnel to the Friends Meeting House.","narrative":"Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church stands at Sixth and Lombard Streets in Philadelphia, on a lot Richard Allen purchased in 1793 with the help of Dr. Benjamin Rush. Allen, a former slave and unordained itinerant preacher, had left St. George's Methodist Church in 1787 with about 42 followers in protest against its segregated worship. The congregation later became the mother church of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America, which gives the building its name. The first church on the site was replaced in 1805 by a red brick structure, and in 1889 that was torn down for a larger building. The present church has a granite three-story front, a four-story tower, a large circular-headed doorway and stained glass windows made in Heidelberg, Germany. A tunnel linked it to the Friends Meeting House at Fourth and Arch, and it was used as part of the underground railway by escaping slaves. Richard Allen is buried in the basement. The lot is regarded as the oldest parcel of real estate continuously owned by Black people in the United States.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Victorian Romanesque Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"The building is in good condition and is used daily.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.562177-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/72001166.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001166/27157c60d0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001166/27157c60d0-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_Bethel_Philly_a.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_Bethel_Philly_a.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"71000065","name":"Society Hill Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/pennsylvania/society-hill-historic-district-71000065/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997374","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Bethel_A.M.E._Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6917303"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/philadelphia/mother-bethel-a-m-e-church-72001166/"}