{"nrhp_refnum":"94000243","name":"Wesley Temple AME Church","other_names":["Sum-243-13"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"104 N. Prospect St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Akron","county":"Summit County","state":"OH","lat":41.08616896400008,"lon":-81.51034823999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Neo-Classical Revival brick church at 104 N. Prospect Street in Akron, Summit County, Ohio, completed and dedicated in 1928 for the city's oldest black congregation.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is significant under Criterion A for its role in Akron's African-American history. It housed the city's oldest black congregation, founded in 1866. The church served as a religious, social, educational and civic center, hosted the local NAACP chapter's founding, and fed unemployed Black residents during the Depression.","narrative":"Wesley Temple A.M.E. Zion Church is a red brick Neo-Classical Revival building north of downtown Akron, completed in 1928 on a steel frame. Its front features a pedimented portico with four Ionic columns, round-arched stained glass windows along the sides, brick quoins and small octagonal windows. Inside, the main sanctuary keeps its original pews, light fixtures, pipe organ and balcony, while the basement sanctuary follows a modified Akron Plan with Sunday School rooms. A rear addition was built in 1963, and the portico columns were replaced with exact copies around 1980. The congregation began in 1866 as Akron's first black congregation. Over the decades the church served as a meeting place for Black organizations, a lecture hall, the site where the local NAACP chapter was organized, and the main place where unemployed Black residents were fed during the Depression. Its members included many of Akron's prominent African-American citizens.","period_of_significance":"1928-1943","architect_builder":"Wardner, Herbert L.; Sommerville, John O.","architectural_style":"Classical Revival (described in the text as Neo-Classical Revival)","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still used as a church; the form reports a high state of architectural integrity, with a 1963 rear addition and minor changes around 1980.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.769205-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/94000243.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000243/6d272d7d8a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000243/6d272d7d8a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Nola Bev","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wesley_Temple_from_Prospect_Street.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Nola Bev</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wesley_Temple_from_Prospect_Street.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991633","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Temple_AME_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7984010"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/summit-county/wesley-temple-ame-church-94000243/"}