{"nrhp_refnum":"83001670","name":"Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church","other_names":["St. Luke's A.M.E. Zion Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"174 E. Eagle St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buffalo","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.88331829600003,"lon":-78.86839859099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-09-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A red brick church with sandstone trim at 174 East Eagle Street in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, designed in 1920 by architect Louis Greenstein and built in 1922 by contractor William A. Walker. It was originally St. Luke's A.M.E. Zion Church.","why_significant":"It is presented as the oldest surviving church associated with Buffalo's A.M.E. Zion congregations. St. Luke's was the first black congregation in Buffalo to build its own place of worship. The church served as an educational, social, political and religious center for Black residents, including migrants from the South who came north seeking industrial work.","narrative":"Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, originally St. Luke's, is a red brick church with sandstone trim at 174 East Eagle Street in Buffalo. Louis Greenstein designed it in 1920, and contractor William A. Walker completed it in 1922. A square, crenellated bell tower stands at the southeast corner, and Tudor-arched openings and Gothic-arched stained-glass windows mark the walls. The congregation began in 1901 and joined the A.M.E. Zion Conference in 1906. It became the first Black congregation in Buffalo to build its own church rather than occupy an existing building. The $50,000 cost was partly covered by wealthy Buffalonians, with the rest financed by a mortgage. The church served as a social, cultural and educational center for Black residents, many of them migrants from the South. It offered job training for youth and adult classes, and during the Depression it ran W.P.A.-funded programs. The building was renamed for Reverend Henry Durham, who oversaw its construction, after most of the congregation moved away in the late 1950s. Buffalo designated it a city landmark in 1979.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Louis Greenstein, architect; William A. Walker, contractor","architectural_style":"Tudor and Gothic Revival details (Tudor-arched openings, Gothic-arched windows, crenellated bell tower)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in religious use; altered, with the large front stained-glass window lost to wind damage and replaced with glass block and plain glass, but described as retaining its architectural integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.347247-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/83001670.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001670/73a57aa416-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001670/73a57aa416-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durham_Memorial_A.M.E._Zion_Church_Dec_09.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog (talk)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Durham_Memorial_A.M.E._Zion_Church_Dec_09.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317598","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_Memorial_A.M.E._Zion_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5316532"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/durham-memorial-a-m-e-zion-church-83001670/"}