{"nrhp_refnum":"76001319","name":"St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Fayetteville St. and Durham Expwy.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Durham","county":"Durham County","state":"NC","lat":35.985770639000066,"lon":-78.89790075899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-08-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"St. Joseph's A.M.E. Church is a brick church at Fayetteville Street and the Durham Expressway in Durham, North Carolina, begun in 1891 and designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel L. Leary.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an eclectic Gothic Revival church whose exterior form contrasts with its plan, and whose fabric, including a painted pressed tin ceiling, is well preserved. It is described as the product of cooperation between blacks and whites and as an expression of Durham's prominent black community. Its members included leading black business and educational figures, and it served as a community center and a center of civil rights activity.","narrative":"Built from 1891 to a design by Philadelphia architect Samuel L. Leary, St. Joseph's A.M.E. Church is a brick church on Fayetteville Street in Durham. Its eight-bay basilican form combines Richardsonian Romanesque massing with Gothic Revival and classical details, including a corner tower with a pyramidal spire and a stained glass portrait of benefactor Washington Duke. Inside, the seating curves around a chancel set along the north side, at odds with the exterior axis, beneath a turquoise and gold pressed tin ceiling. The congregation traces back to 1869 and a brush arbor, and its minister began the first school for Durham's black residents. Local black brickmaker Robert B. Fitzgerald fired the bricks, and white tobacco figures contributed to the building fund. Members included John Merrick, founder of North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, and educator William G. Pearson. The church became a community center and, later, a base for civil rights activity in Durham.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Samuel L. Leary","architectural_style":"Eclectic late Victorian, combining Richardsonian Romanesque, Gothic Revival and Neo-classical elements","criteria":[],"status_note":"Sold to the Durham Redevelopment Commission; the congregation was expected to move to a new church in November 1975, after which the building would be abandoned. A bi-racial committee was exploring adaptive reuse for civic purposes.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:56.220957-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/7200/47720074/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/76001319.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001319/ef50ba2351-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001319/ef50ba2351-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Ildar Sagdejev (Specious)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008-07-23_St_Joseph%27s_AME_Church.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ildar Sagdejev (Specious)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008-07-23_St_Joseph%27s_AME_Church.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720074","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph%27s_African_Methodist_Episcopal_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7589055"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/durham-county/st-josephs-african-methodist-episcopal-church-76001319/"}