It's no secret that Protestant religious practices have and still serve as a cornerstone of African American life and cultural production. The church has been a place of respite and unity for many, where one could come together with others to liberate themselves from the burdens of the outside world. However, the Black church has also been a space of duality. Historically, in order to maintain the sanctity of this free expression in a world so willing to enact violence and oppression against Black people, the church was forced to exist within the margins of White society, effectively becoming “hidden in plain sight”. Simultaneously this freedom has alsocreated a space ripe for resistance and protest against these very forces of oppression. While this conflict is understood by the public through the lens of direct political activism, most commonly associated with the work of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), its effects can be felt in the cultural production of Black religious space. As the struggle for Black freedom and existence grew, its manifestations in the built environment did as well, becoming bolder andmore prominent in their expression, eschewing the desire to remain “hidden in plain sight”. By examining two case studies from the East Falls neighborhood, St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and New Hope Baptist Church, we can begin to understand the various ways this transition is reflected in the architecture itself.

History of the AME Church

Christianity has been a tool used by Europeans to shift power dynamics for centuries, helping to create the hierarchy of race that was used to justify colonialism, slavery, and genocide throughout the world. However, the question of whether or not to Christianize slaves wasdebated amongst American enslavers for many years. According to Dr. Paul Harvey, distinguished professor of history at the University of Colorado, many in the early 18th century felt as though Africans' subhuman status within the constructed social hierarchy made them unredeemable and therefore not worth saving while others worried that Christianizing Africans would provide them the tools and knowledge to advocate for their own freedom. However, bythe 1780s the evangelists of the first Great Awakening had successfully brought Christianity to many African Americans whether the enslavers wanted them to or not.³

These newly converted enslaved people often practiced a hybridized form of Christianity that combined many of the West African traditions that had been carried over to the United States with the elements of Evangelical Christianity that closely matched, such as the full immersion baptism. Slaves considered this version of Christianity to be the “true” expression of faith opposed to that which was enforced by their enslavers. Regardless they had to be wellversed in both practices as they were forced to attend white services with their enslavers. Here ministers would preach a censored version of the bible which sought to hone the enslaved people’s obedience.

Each of these two practices were held in completely different spatial arrangements. The bi-racial church found in both the North and the South sought to silence and reinforce the hierarchical dynamics between the enslavers and enslaved. They did so by creating segregated seating which placed the enslavers on the ground floor and the enslaved people in the balconies above. This arrangement would literally keep the enslaved people above the sightlines of thewhite congregants and “hidden in plain sight”. Meanwhile from their position, African Americans had no choice but to constantly watch the white congregants whom they wereexpected to mimic in order to become good “civilized” Christians.

Meanwhile, enslaved people would retreat to secluded clearings in the woods known as hush harbors (or brush harbors) to practice their own religious rituals. These provided African Americans the much-needed opportunity to escape from the watchful eyes of the White slaveowners and patrollers. Unlike the bi-racial church, these were completely improvisational spaces. Most often there were no permanent or semi-permanent buildings, rather the only objects used to define space were the trees and earth that surrounded the congregation. Participants would often bring objects with them to help transform and protect this space. Blankets would be draped over tree limbs in order to block noise and views, while pots would be tipped over to help “catch” thesound emanating from the space. While in the hush harbors, Black preachers would leadcongregations in prayer, song, and dance. Because it was illegal for enslaved people to learn howto read, call and response preaching and songs became particularly important within thesespaces, as it allowed for active participation from those who could not read the bible themselves. Particularly popular were Negro spirituals, which combined elements of Christian hymnals with traditional African music to create deeply resonant and emotional songs. Alongside this, populardances like the Ring Shout, were also practiced here. When paired with music, these dances,which saw people rhythmically shuffling in a circle, would send participants into a trance-like state attributed to the Holy Spirit. The secrecy of these spaces presented opportunities for other activities as well. Homegoing funereal ceremonies to honor those who had passed away were commonly held in the Hush Harbors. These ceremonies, which also combined Christian and West African Practices, could be held weeks or even months after a person had died depending on when the community could safely gather.⁴

All together the Hush Harbors represent the first true Black church within the United States. Their very essence aligns closely to what the Black church represents today. It provided asafe space outside of the ever-present White gaze, where Black communities could gather freely to develop comradery, arts, and culture. It was a space of both political and religious resistanceand its temporality only reinforced the notion of “hiding in plain sight”.

During this same period, the Great Awakening had spread to the northern states. Here new sects of protestant faith began to take hold and emerge. Among these was Methodism, aderivation of the Anglican church led by Englishman John Wesley. Wesley challenged both therole and preaching style of the church, instead promoting a more personal and humble expression of faith. While Wesley remained in England, advocates for his teachings, such as Francis Asbury, came to the United States to lead the growing base of support. One of the fundamental tenets of Methodism was a rejection of the ostentatious exhibition of the church. This was a core factor used to shape every aspect of the practice from its teachings to its architecture. In contrast to the design of Anglican church, Methodist doctrine proposed a more modest architecture which stripped the building of much of its elaborate ornamentation, scale, and form, a welcome and suitable practice for the still yet nascent colonies who did not yet have the funds or resources to construct these monumental buildings.⁵ So core to the faith were these principles that Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury specifically discussed them in their book The Doctrines and Disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America,

“Let all our churches be built plain and decent; but not more expensively than isabsolutely unavoidable: otherwise the necessity of raising money will make rich mennecessary to us. But if so, we must be dependent on them, yea, governed by them. Andthen farewell to Methodist discipline, if not doctrine too.”⁶

Alongside this belief, they were one of the first religious sects to support the abolishment of slavery, calling it “a great evil” and refusing to accept any members who enslaved others. This stance made it quite popular amongst the Black population of New England cities like Philadelphia. One of the new members, Richard Allen, became a leader within the church and would eventually go on to found the African Methodist Episcopal church, the first formal Black religious congregation in the United States.

In 1786 Allen, a former slave who purchased his freedom, joined St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church located in Philadelphia, PA. Still in operation today, this building itself datesback to 1763 and was initially constructed for a Dutch reform congregation, before funds ran dry prior to its completion. In 1769, the Methodist congregation purchased the building for 650 pounds and began to hold services there.⁷ Built in a Greek Revival style, the simplicity of its architecture was closely aligned to the principles laid out in the Methodist doctrine. Outside of the basic pediment and subtle brick pilasters, there exists no signs of ornamentation on the exterior of the building. In fact, a casual passerby may not even recognize this as a religious space, especially within the context of colonial Philadelphia in which it was constructed. However, on the interior, it maintained the social organization seen within the bi-racial churches of the South. While the Methodist church rejected the practice of slavery, it continued to segregate Black and White parishioners. Allen, an associate of Asbury, would host services at 5AM on Sunday mornings for the African American members of the congregation. Integrated services were also held, though African Americans were relegated to the balconies. As more African Americans joined the congregation, racial tensions began to rise within the church. This culminated in an altercation in the middle of service one Sunday in 1787. Rev. Absalom Jones, another Black leader within the church and friend of Allen, was on his knees deep in prayer on the main floor of the church when a White parishioner pulled him to his feet and demanded that he move to Black section of the gallery. Supposedly this parishioner was aggravated by the “scuffling and low talking” coming from the area where Jones was praying. Following this altercation, Jones, Allen, and all other Black congregants proceeded to leave the church. As Allen describes in his own words,

“By this time prayer was over, and we all went out of the church in a body, andthey were no more plagued with us in the church.”⁸

This incident only further exemplifies the level of control and censorship Whites heldover Black existence and religious practices. Even within a “tolerant” abolitionist space, the mere presence and practice of Black religiosity was viewed as a disturbance. The expectation of African Americans to remain unseen and unheard existed beyond the plantation, throughout the entire country. This necessitated the creation of a religious space akin to the Hush Harbors that would allow African Americans to freely practice their faith without fear of repercussions. In the decades following the altercation, Allen began to organize Black Methodist congregants locatedin various US cities into a united coalition. Originating as part of the Free African Society, this coalition officially became known as the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1816. 

Led by Allen the church followed traditional Methodist doctrine quite closely. Similarly, to the enslaved people in the South, many congregants had very few issues or complaints with the teaching of the faith itself, rather they wanted to practice in a more open way than what was allowed in bi-racial churches. This reverence to the Methodist teachings is evident in the hymnal books produced by the Allen following their departure from St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. Published in 1818, the first hymnal book of the AME Church directly borrows 244 of its 314 hymns directly from the Methodist Episcopal Hymnal book suggesting, according to Dr. Eileen Southern, that Allen was “concerned about meeting the high standards of the Methodist hymnal in his new publication.”⁹ This same reverence would eventually be evident in the architecture of the church itself.

When Allen first left the Methodist congregation at St. George’s, he and his new followers began to search for suitable locations to replace their house of worship. With meager funds and time of the utmost importance, the congregation began looking for spaces they could repurpose into a church. As a disenfranchised people, their options were limited to the “leftover” spaces that Whites no longer had a use for. Between 1787 and 1791, Allen’s congregation occupied a vacant storehouse in the city. Throughout this time in the storehouse, a committee was formed to gather funds to find a larger location elsewhere. This committee reached out to elites within the city in order to find those sympathetic to their cause. They were able to find allies in both Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Robert Ralston, a local merchant. Rush and Ralston were generous donors themselves and helped to spread the campaign to others. During this same time period a schism occurred within the congregationover their allegiance to the church of England. Those who were in support of the church, Absalom Jones included, opted to split off and form St. Thomas’ African Episcopal Church. By 1791 Allen was able to purchase, relocate, and remodel a wooden blacksmith shop to house theremaining congregation.¹⁰

While the quarters in the blacksmith shop represented a slightly more permanent location for the congregation, in that it was a structure that they owned and held autonomy over, it still maintained the character of the informal meeting space. Nothing exemplifies this more than apainting held within the collection of the current Mother Bethel church, which speculatively depicts what the services may have looked like in the blacksmith shop.¹¹ Most interestingly, the painting highlights the pulpit which was literally created from the anvil left within the space. The dramatic lighting and framing of the anvil romanticizes the space’s informality, suggesting that the community valued this space not only for its religious affiliation, but for the informal qualities themselves. It is these very qualities that represent the community’s devotion to both their faith and to one another. The architecture is viewed not as an incidental byproduct of the economic and political circumstances that they found themselves in, but the logical continuation of the Hush Harbors. The informality celebrates the community’s ingenuity even within the most difficult of circumstances. Additionally, the celebration of informality is codified within the Methodist belief system, which promotes modesty in religious architecture. Together these ideas represent the first step of Black religious placemaking. In having to“find space” for the congregation, it forces a level of social cohesion which helps to strengthen communal bonds. It does so by honoring informality both as a practice of religious modesty important to the Methodist faith and as an age-old tradition tied to cultural preservation and empowerment.

However, as mentioned previously, this is only the first step of Black religious placemaking. These temporary locations were quickly outgrown by the rapidly expanding congregation, giving cause to relocate. Having collected enough funds through their various donors, Allen opted to construct a brand-new church building on the site of the Blacksmith shop. Completed in 1794, this building was the first design of the newly founded Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, later known simply as Mother Bethel. Though only a two-story structure, the building retains a striking similarity to the congregation’s original house of worshipat St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church.

The building keeps the symmetrical three-part organization that defined St. George’s facade along keeps the Sash windows, though shifting to a 12 over 12 design with shutters. The two-door design continues, but they are shifted apart to allow for a sash window to be inserted inbetween. The gable roof and attic windows stay the same but the pediment is now broken. Lastly the sign embedded into the facade is maintained, but kept smaller than original. Bishop Daniel Payne called this iteration of the Bethel AME church, “as plain as a Quaker’s coat and perfectlyfree from ornament.”¹²

After splitting from the Methodist Episcopal church, the congregation had the chance tocompletely reinvent their own image and material culture, but yet they chose not to. Similar to the enslaved people in the south, congregants of the AME church took little to no issue with theteachings of the Methodist Episcopal faith itself. Instead, they wanted to create a space free from the pressures placed upon them by White eyes. Allen, considered by many to be a pragmatist, saw little incentive to drastically alter the form of the church as it conformed nicely to the tenantsof the faith. However, an additional benefit of the borrowed form is that it maintained the same anonymity as the other Methodist churches, allowing the congregation to remain “hidden in plainsight”.

Further emphasizing these points was the third Bethel AME church constructed in 1841, ten years after the death of Richard Allen. This structure restores some of the slight alterations made by the second building, making it more closely aligned to the original St. George church. It returned to being a three-story building with a complete gable. The attic window once again returned to its original semi-circular shape, while the doors were simplified back down removing the gabled frame. It even goes so far as to recreate the bricked-up windows on the first floor thatcan be seen in the contemporary versions of St. George.

However, what both the second and third iteration of the Mother Bethel church also represent is the social status of Black Americans in the antebellum era. Throughout this period, the church continued its role as a space of free Black expression. But in order to continue doing so, it needed to bring no undue attention unto itself. While still a relevant issue today, the mere presence of Black bodies in public spaces was intensely criminalized. Orders such as the Fugitive Slave Act encouraged African Americans, free or not, to maintain a relatively secretive existence.

With the political emancipation of African Americans following the Civil War, Blackexpression and protest could and had become more public. The fourth version of the Mother Bethel Church, completed in 1890 by Frank Furness protégé Edward Hazelhurst, reflects this drastic shift in public presence.¹³ It completely abandoned the pre-civil war colonial architectural stylings of the first two churches and began to embrace the newly created Romanesque style which was quickly sweeping the nation. This style, developed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, became what was considered to be the first definitive “American” high architectural style, admired and emulated by the likes of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others. It may be the case that during this period, which saw newly-freed Black people try to redefine their relationship to the American identity, they chose to adopt the architectural stylings of Richardson to try and cement themselves as equal bearers of the American name. This isn’t to say that the church is a mere copy of this style, rather it borrows it for the political message while strategically modifying it to reflect Black material culture as can be seen in the stained-glass windows, which depict the Christian story from a uniquely Black viewpoint that incorporates Black subjects into religious art. This co-opting of style for political means is no more evident than in the drastic change in materiality seen on the exterior. The front façade is literally just that, a façade. It utilizes the rusticated bricks common amongst Richardsonian buildings. However, when viewing the building from the side, the red brick used to construct the remainder immediately stands in contrast, making it appear as though the building is wearing a shield from the outside world. It is this version of the building that has since become an iconic symbol within the AME Church. The prefix mother, added in 1953 to signify the changing role of women inchurch affairs, is also symbolic of its reverence amongst all member churches located across the nation.¹⁴

Three Step Process

The story of the Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is representative of the material culture of African Americans religious practices throughout the United States. By tracing the lineage of church architecture, we can see trends common amongst African American communities throughout the country. Gretchen Lemke Santangelo, creates a useful framework to analyze Black space through in her book Abiding Courage: African American migrant womenand the East Bay community.¹⁵ In it, Santangelo traces the settlement patterns of AfricanAmericans during the Great Migration, a period in the early to mid 20th century in which millions of African Americans fled the economically stagnant Jim Crow South for industrial jobs in cities across the country. Here she says,

“Migrants’ search for housing typically went through three phases: temporary,transitional, and permanent. Initially, migrants stayed with friends and relatives or foundshort term accommodations in crowded boardinghouses, trailer parks, chicken coops,tents, or automobiles... From there, migrants found more spacious housing in government war projects or privately-owned apartment buildings ...From thistransitional housing, migrants moved into permanent rental units or purchased their ownhomes.”¹⁶

This three-step settlement process, going from temporary to transitional to permanent, can similarly be applied to the institutions created alongside the growing communities, like churches and community centers, which tend to follow similar patterns of growth. However, abstracting this same pattern of space, it becomes evident that this settlement pattern is not unique to the Great Migration and can instead represent larger concepts like Black Space and material culture, A slight rewording is required to reflect this shift in focus: Finding Space, Adapting Space, and Creating Space. This alteration in the language used to describe this process reframes it from a passive experience to an active development. Doing so helps to distinguish these spaces as uniquely important interventions made by the community to the built environment, furthering the goals of historians like John Michael Vlach.¹⁷

This altered framework can be overlaid onto the history of the A.M.E. Church for instance to provide a new reading which treats each iteration of the church’s architecture as a significant expression of African American material culture:

“Finding” Space - Temporarily utilizing the space left over by White communities. This sense of informality and impermanence date back to the Hush Harbors on plantations which were completely improvised spaces for Black religious practice. These allow a very young and small community to bond and share culture outside of the pressures of the White society they exist within. Examples of “found” space completely blend into the surrounding urban fabric allowing the community to remain “hidden in plain sight”. This can be seen in the storehouse and blacksmith shop iterations of the Bethel AME church.

“Adapting” Space - Adapting existing buildings to fit the need of African American religious practice. Often communities choose to move into this space not because they are unsatisfied with the temporary “found” location, but because they simply need more room for the growing base of people using the facilities. The changes made to the building may be very simple in nature, in part due to the stressed financials of the community. Sometimes communities are able to find allies within the city, usually prominent philanthropic businessmen or politicians to help finance the construction of these spaces. The adapted space often is what first draws the attention of the wider community. In the case of the Bethel AME church the adapted space can be seen in the second and third iterations of the building. While these were both new constructions, they sought to remain unassuming in their scale and presentation, mimicking the architecture of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church. In the case of the AME Church, this mirroring is also heavily reliant on the religious doctrine which asked congregants to maintain a modest expression of faith.

“Creating” Space - Once firmly established, communities will often seek to create a brazen display of architecture which firmly marks their presence within the city. These buildings do not simply blend into the landscape, they become landmarks unto themselves. At this point, the architecture has been blended with African American material culture in a way that makes it wholly unique from the styles which it may borrow from. In the Bethel AME church, this is exhibited in the Romanesque designs of the most recent construction.

Case Study: St. John's A.M.E. Church & New Hope Baptist Church
Step 1: "Finding" Space

Turning our attention back to Niagara Falls, we can see this same exact pattern, architecture and all, represented in multiple institutions. We will first examine St. John's A.M.E. Church, the oldest remaining African American religious congregation in the city, before moving onto other churches and community institutions.

In 1906, St. John’s A.M.E was the second African American congregation to form in thecity of Niagara Falls following the disintegration of the Second Baptist Church in 1901.¹⁸ At this point in time, just after the completion of the hydraulic tunnel, the Black population of Niagara Falls was still quite small, roughly 300 people. One third of these residents rented space in the East Falls neighborhood, largely clustered on and around Eleventh Street (now Memorial Parkway).¹⁹ It was on this street that a small community gathered to pray at a private home,forming the earliest congregation of what would become known as St. John’s AME.²⁰ Very little is known about this location as records dating back that far are quite scarce. It is possible that the congregation met at Patrick Johnson’s house at 225 11th street as this was the only Black owned household in the entire East Falls neighborhood or John Alexander’s residence at 113 11th streetas he is later listed as an early member of the church, though both of these suggestions are only speculation.²¹ Regardless, this represents the first instance of the community trying to “find” space to practice within. It is likely that the parishioners being wouldn’t have had a dedicated space to practice within the home. Instead the “church” would be set up and taken down as needed. This process would have required the congregants to completely rearrange a room to accommodate the gathering of people for religious service. Though operating inside a building, this practice is highly reminiscent of the spatial temporality and informality of the Hush Harbors found on plantations all throughout the South. Its existence would have relied solely on the direct communication between community members, specifically existing outside the purview of the public.

Later in 1906, the community moved to a location outside the East Falls neighborhood on 306 Niagara Street. Located directly next to the Niagara Falls Gazette headquarters, this building was quite unassuming. Here the congregation rented out space, likely on the upper levels, to hold their services. It was at this location that Rev. Joseph Styles, presiding Elder of the Manhattan district, came to officially organize the church. At this time the first formal Pastor, Rev. A.L. Wilson was appointed.²² Similarly to the storehouse of the Mother Bethel AME Church, this “found” space allowed the community to “hide within plain sight”, operating behind the scenes. This type of arrangement, where Black congregations would rent space in community halls was common place in Niagara Falls at the time. The first Black congregation in the city, the Second Baptist Church, began their practice at Crick’s Hall. located on the intersection of Erie Avenue and Falls Street.²³ Meanwhile Trinity Baptist Church began in Craftsmen Hall at 5 Sugar Street (known today as Hyde Park Boulevard).²⁴ This spatial arrangement would have likely been important to the community for multiple reasons. First there was a very explicit fear amongst White community members of the growing Black community. One Black tunnel worker was quoted as saying in the Niagara Gazette,

“When we comes along de street dey runs in de houses and closes de doahs. So fa’ as I can see dey’s afraid of us, count some of our fellows got such rep’tation for letting blood on dis side.”²⁵

Additionally, the East Side was becoming a highly scrutinized neighborhood by the White community of the city. Many labeled it as dirty, crime ridden, and debaucherous, particularly the11th street area, which would come to be considered to be the city’s Red-Light district over the subsequent decades. This reputation made the East Side a target for many clean up campaigns run both by the city and private groups such as the International Institute of Niagara Falls. These sought to “Americanize” European immigrant communities, largely stripping them of their cultural heritage. This can most clearly be seen in the renaming of Kosciusko Street to 15th Street and the transition of ethnic newspapers and church services from utilizing Polish to English.²⁶ Still only yet forming, the congregants of St. John’s may have wanted to avoid any unnecessary attention to allow them to practice their faith uninhibited. Previous expressions of Black presence in the public sphere were condemned by the White community. According to an article published in the Niagara Gazette, the Second Baptist Church was chided for performing a “Cake Walk”, something vehemently denied by Rev. B.B.B. Johnson.²⁷ Taken together, these factors demonstrate an environment hostile to Black presence and performance.

During its time at this location, the 300-400 block of Main Street began to form another small Black business district as new tourist homes and churches opened up. R.T. Dett, the father of famous Black spiritualist R. Nathaniel Dett, operated his tourist home, the Keystone Hotel at 333 Main Street.²⁸ The homes of Alice Ford and Charles Brown, both members of St. John's AME, were also listed in the Green book 29 years later while Shiloh Baptist, another early Black congregation, opened a temporary location at 422 Main Street.³⁰

It is important to understand that a core aspect of Black community building is reliant on an interconnected web of people and spaces that help to foster a sense of pride and unity. It is expected that everyone looks out for one another, harkening back to the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child”, which may possibly have origins in several African cultures. It is at this location that this interconnectedness begins to appear. Church events bled outside of the fourwalls of the building at 447 Main Street and into the individual congregants’ houses. For instance, various newspaper articles recount weddings and funerals that occurred at Alice Ford’s house down the street from the church.³¹

As early as 1915, the congregants of St. John’s began planning for another move.³² The reasons for this move are still yet unknown, though one could speculate that the city’s rapidly growing African American population was a contributing factor. As seen in the Mother Bethel A.M.E. church, the impetus for moving often came down to the need for additional space for the expanding congregation. This would make sense in Niagara Falls as between 1910 and 1920, the African American population of the city nearly doubled, going from 266 to 506 people. According to the 1920 Census, nearly one third of the African American population (162 people) resided in the East Falls area, while another third (165 people) lived in the census wards located just east and west of the East Falls neighborhood.³³ A location within the East Falls neighborhood would therefore become a centralized spot for a large portion of the Black community.

Later that same year an article was published in the Niagara Falls Gazette which suggested that congregation would construct their own church located somewhere along the 300 block of 9th street which included an architectural rendering of the prospective church.³⁴ Based on the very small budget of only $1000, it is very unlikely that the church would have hired an architect to design a building for them, rather they would have chosen a church out of a catalogue book. Extraordinarily popular at this time, catalogue books presented potential buyers with hundreds of off-the-shelf designs to fit their aesthetic and functional needs. While these are most commonly associated with houses and major corporations like Sears Roebuck, church organizations would occasionally publish their own versions of these catalogues. One of the first to do so was the Methodist Episcopal Church who began publishing these catalogues as early as 1870. These presented a wide variety of options for various budgets ranging from $1,000 to $20,000. It is unknown which catalogue the rendering St. John’s A.M.E provided to the newspaper came from, but when examined in comparison to the Methodist Episcopal catalogue interesting details begin to emerge which position this architecture in conversation with the history of the AME church.

In the 1889 edition of the catalogue, seemingly one of the last publications from the church, 75 renderings of churches appear.³⁵ The proposed image of St. John’s most closely resembles plan #1 both in its general form and level of ornamental complexity. In the catalogue this design is positioned to be the inexpensive “base” model for those congregations with the most limited funds. If the simplicity of architecture constructed by the congregation of St. John’s were to be solely driven by economic forces, one may have concluded that they would choose the barest of base model, but they don’t. Instead they opt to replace the simple rectangular windows with pointed arches reminiscent of the Gothic revival style that had become dominant in reinvention of A.M.E Church architecture following the Civil War, most famously seen in the Metropolitan A.M.E church located in Washington D.C.³⁶ This architecture represents the midpoint betweenthe community’s efforts to adapt and create space. Even when presented with alternate options which complicate the form of the building, the congregation opts to stick with the simplest version reminiscent of the formal simplicity of the early iterations of the Bethel AME church. However, it begins to introduce elements used by important AME churches who actively seek to redefine Black existence within the city. In the context of Niagara Falls this hybridization makes sense as the rapidly expanding population of the Black community was only just beginning to unify and formalize the communal bonds being built. Their cultural and political status within the city was still weak in comparison to what it would eventually become. As a result, thearchitecture begins to reflect this transition.

Step 2: Adapting Space

For reasons unknown this iteration of the church was never completed. It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later in 1924 that a plan to move the church was finally able to be enacted. By this point the congregation had seemingly given up the idea of constructing their own building, turning their attention towards existing building stock. They had briefly thought about relocating to the former Our Lady of Lebanon Catholic church within the East Falls neighborhood, but this had fallen through.³⁷ Instead, the congregation led by Rev. J. L. Pottinger, acquired a brickstorefront at 155 13th Street using funds raised by church members.

Constructed somewhere between 1897 and 1899, the building had a number of tenants prior to the congregation moving in, with most only living there a year or so before findinghousing elsewhere.³⁸ Additionally, the building may have also served as a barber shop, based onads found in the Niagara Gazette.³⁹ The earliest documentation of the architecture can be seen on the 1914 Sanborn map. Here the two-story brick structure is depicted as being split down the center by a partition wall, dividing the building into a dwelling unit and storefront. This separation would have required that the building have two separate entrances, one on each sideof the facade. Beyond this, not much is known about the original building as no photographs or other documentation appears to remain.

Upon purchasing the property, the church completed a large-scale renovation to “adapt” the building to their own needs. This began by immediately removing the partition wall that divided the building in two, allowing the first floor to become a dedicated 120-person sanctuary, while the second floor became a parsonage. The basement also housed a small kitchen, dining room and bathroom.⁴⁰ However, the most significant changes occurred on the front facade of the building. On the first floor the congregation replaced one of the entrances with a pointed archway, inserted a set of rounded stained-glass windows, and added a false cornerstone reading: 1906-1924, marking the founding of the church and the year that the congregation relocated to that building. On the second-floor decorative quoins were created around the windows and a stone sign with the name of the church were embedded into the wall. Additionally, a small cross was added to the top of the parapet. To what extent this façade maintained the original character of the building is difficult to know due to the lack of documentation, but in future photos of the building (see appendix E), the brickwork of the façade appears to be made of different bricks than the sidewalls, suggesting that the entire façade could have been replaced during this renovation.

At this point the congregation no longer had to find space, but had the ability to adapt space to express their own cultural values within the architecture itself. What resulted was ablending of the old religious norms with the reconstruction era identity shift, to become something relatively unique to the new communities forming as a result of the Great Migration. The new façade maintains the formal simplicity of the first iterations of the A.M.E Church while simultaneously integrating some of the details from the Gothic and Romanesque revivals built after the Civil War. This blending was a direct result of having to “adapt” a pre-existing building into religious space, much in the tradition of the early AME churches.

Take for instance the two doors on the façade. Early versions of the AME church all contained two entrances which would have both likely led into the narthex. On the St. John’s the two doors were not the result of aesthetics but rather a remnant of the building’s previous function, serving as entrances for the separate tenants. Because of this functional difference, the congregation chose different finishing details to differentiate the sacred from the profane. The new door employs a pointed arch frame, decorative quoins, and elaborate hanging lanterns as symbols of the gothic revival which had become popular amongst well-established AME congregations elsewhere in the country. In contrast, the door on the left, likely leading to the parsonage upstairs, reminds the visitor of the building’ humble origins. Even the steps leading to the two doors reinforce this sacred versus profane dynamic as the steps on the right spill out beyond the door frame, inviting everyone in from any which direction.

Similar attempts to adapt this mass market design to form religious space can be read though the alignment of the windows, the formation of a gabled parapet, and the addition of a sign embedded into the brickwork, all of which can be seen in the diagrams found below. Each of these moves demonstrates a concerted effort made by the congregation to reshape the spaces they occupied to fit their need. This form of placemaking is in no way unique to St. John’s, instead representing a well-studied typology known as the storefront church found in African American and other minority communities throughout the United States. It’s only through close examination of buildings like St. John’s can one understand how this seemingly benign architecture actually builds upon a long lineage of tradition that constitute these Black spaces as significant additions to the built environment equal in value to those architectures recognized by more traditional means of evaluation.

In the oral histories conducted as part of the project, community members were grapplingwith these concepts when discussing the architecture of the church. Rev. Herman “Chuck” Boyer attended the church as a young man and said,

“It was almost like a, to me, it was like a housefront. And, I mean, you could look at the building, say it was a church. But, to me, it was just a housefront.... It was just plain and simple. Now, it wasn't like these, like, now, the Polish church down East Falls Street...”⁴¹

Rev. Boyer also eluded to the fact that he, along with many others were disappointed in the building’s eventual demolition, expressing a desire to have preserved it. In her oral history, Ruby McCoy spoke about how the bonds built by church community were stronger than any limitations of the building, particularly the cramped quarters. She’d later comment on how much she loved the stain glass windows and “beautiful” carved wooden chairs.⁴²

Comments like these are important to understanding how people’s emotions and memory are intrinsically tied to the architecture of the space. While these repurposed buildings do not constitute a monumental work of architecture like Holy Trinity Church, they represent buildings of equal historical and architectural significance that would constitute their preservation.

Step 3: Creating Space

As many people of those interviewed had stated, by the late 1950s the quarters at 155 13th street, though well loved, were simply too small for the burgeoning congregation. The pastor of the church, Rev. Edgar L Huff, considered by many to be a local hero, ran a campaign drive to collect funds for the expansion of the church building. Beginning in September of 1958, this drive would seek to gather $50,000 in small increments from people across the city.⁴³ Similar to the fundraising drives run by the first A.M.E. congregations in Philadelphia, this garnered support from prominent businesses and politicians, such as Mayor E. Dent Lackey.

By the end of 1959, over $66,000 had been collected by the congregation for the construction of a new building.⁴⁴ Likely due in part to the shifting population base to the city’s north end, the church had now opted to purchase a plot of land on the corner of Center Avenue and 9th Street, just blocks away from a number of the city’s public housing complexes. This was the second major Black-led institution to move to the city’s North End, following the Niagara Community Center in 1949.⁴⁵ The ground was broken on March 18th, 1961 and the cornerstone, which contained a portion of the old and new testaments and a roster of church officers, was laidon Sunday November 26th, 1961.⁴⁶

The architect behind the new location was Robert P. Madison of Madison and Madison Associates.⁴⁷ Well-known and respected amongst the community of Cleveland, Madison opened the first Black owned architectural firm in the state of Ohio with his brothers Julian and Bernard who both worked as engineers. Madison had an illustrious career, designing everything from civic buildings across Ohio to the US Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. Madison was also the first African American graduate of Western Reserve University’s School of Architecture and attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design under the tutelage of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius.

Afterwards he was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship where he spent a year studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France.⁴⁸ One would expect this education to prepare Madison for a stringent career of high modernism, but to classify his work as such would be to discredit the nuance he brought to his designs. Madison commonly would return to historical precedent and reference when appealing to the emotions in his designs.

Madison, a deeply spiritual man, treated the design of sacred spaces as a core aspect of his career. Growing up, he spent a significant amount of time living with his grandmother inrural Millry, Alabama. In his memoir, he recounts his experiences attending religious revival services.⁴⁹ These continued the tradition of the Hush Harbor, as groups of people gathered in clearings in the woods for religious service. These services were often held under tents or makeshift shelters made from tree branches, leading them to be called brush arbors by some. These are considered to be the most direct lineage of the Hush Harbors and were adopted by revivalist congregations across the country. In Madison’s experience, a traveling preacher would come around once every three weeks, bringing not only the word of God, but the goings on of the outside world with him, serving as a news source for the community. These services brought the local people together including the extended family which Madison did not see regularly.

Much of Madison’s memory of these events surrounded the “Picnic Dinner” following the service where people would gather for a meal. Here everyone would bring a dish pass, including things like chicken, chitterlings, and greens. Preparation for these meals often took hours or even days to complete, emphasizing the reverence many held for this tradition. These dinners ran for many hours, with time for socializing, songs and games held until dark. These events left deep impacts on Madison with him saying,

“This was monumental. I have never felt so loved and appreciated by people whom I had never met before, people who were related to me through the centuries and certainly through slavery, people I felt I would never see again.”⁵⁰

Later in life Madison would join the African Methodist Episcopal church with whom hehas devoted much of his life too. During his career as an architect, he was designated the official architect of the A.M.E. church and designed various sanctuaries around the country, including St. John’s in Niagara Falls, NY.⁵¹ In this design, he modernizes and simplifies traditional Christian church elements as a way to invoke a sense of religiosity with limited means. Additionally, he considers the church not only as a space of pious worship, but as a place of communal gathering key to African American religious practice. As such he looks not to hide these spaces away, but prominently celebrate them alongside the sanctuary.

To first examine the exterior of the church as it was originally designed, select elements immediately stand out as overt references to historical architecture. Running alongside the building are a series of pilaster-like columns placed in between each window. These are intended to subtly mimic the buttresses found on grander churches and clue the visitor into the structural organization of the interior of the sanctuary. Also visible on the exterior are the stained-glass windows, one of Madison’s favorite architectural features.⁵² The glass in these windows creates abstract geometric patterns, rather than traditional religious iconography. The mullions instead play this role as in the large south-facing window they form a series of overlapping crosses. Lastly, in the rendering, the chimney in the rear of the building is extended and affixed with across, replicating the effect a steeple would have in the landscape. Similar to the storefront church, when combined together, these symbols are intended to invoke religiosity without the scale and grandeur of a monumental church. This acts a benefit to the communities who would not be able to afford to construct the monumental architecture commonly associated with traditional Christian churches. In effect, the tenets of modernism gave these communities avenues by which to formalize the aesthetic practices of the storefront church, maintaining the formal simplicity and applying only the most selective of ornament where deemed necessary.

Beyond pure aesthetics Madison also formalizes the traditions long held close the African American religious experience. For instance, counter to most Christian church design principles, the entrance to the sanctuary is not axial to the entrance of the building. Rather, one must enter the large, off-center narthex prior to entering the sacred space. Here Madison locates two key rooms, the fellowship hall and the “sitting” room. Both of these spaces are dedicated to community events and activities. The fellowship hall is a large open multi purpose room, often filled with folding tables and chairs. This space is host to a wide assortment of events, including dinners and luncheons. Often these sorts of community halls are relegated to separate buildings, backrooms or basements, but here they are placed beside the sanctuary. When entering thebuilding from either the front or back, one must pass by the floor-to-ceiling windows located in the fellowship hall ensuring that one is always aware of the life of the community outside of prayer. In centralizing this space, one may think back to the memories Madison shares of the Picnic Dinner’s at the revival tent as point of reference.

Opposite the Fellowship Hall is the sitting room. This space filled with couches, bookshelves and carpeting is reminiscent of the living room seen in most houses. Here, people congregate for quiet conversation and reflection. For instance, when the author of this thesis met with the pastor of St. John’s, the meeting was held here rather than in her private office. This cozy and home-like space stands in stark contrast with its surroundings and evoke the memory of the house church in which many congregations start. It also serves as a museum of the church’s history with photographs celebrating both previous pastors and the building’s construction.

Turning our attention to the sanctuary reveals a new set of details that evoke Black religious history. Here Madison employs glulam pointed arches to support the ceiling and createan internal rhythm. Not only do these complete the buttress forms visible on the exterior, a reference to the gothic revival, but also support the exposed laths that sheath the roof. This faux heavy timber framing is a common aesthetic principle utilized in many African American churches and can be traced back to the barns which housed many congregations in the American South. The off-axis entrance creates a two-aisle design in the sanctuary, promoting circulation bythe congregation for ceremonies like funerals. This design also places the pastor on the central axis, reinforcing the attention onto the pulpit.

It’s in small moments like these that we can see how these traditions of Black religious practice and space have been formalized in this modest building. Here the minimal aesthetics associated with modernism highlight the gestures towards historicism, mimicking the formal simplicity of the storefront church. At the same time, the communal spaces, that being the sitting room and the fellowship halls, are treated as integral to the design as the sacred space. This forms a unified church complex where each of these spaces is directly connected, opposed to many of the monumental church designs which use separate buildings for communal activities.

This architecture’s focus on community and fellowship should be no surprised based on the era it was constructed in. Completed in 1962, the building represented a larger push throughout the city and country to expand the role of the Black church in the community during the civil rights era. Other Black churches in Niagara Falls such as New Hope Baptist and Trinity Baptist, both originating on the East Side, also constructed or renovating new locations throughout the 1950s and 60s. The pastors of these three churches during this time, that being Rev. Edgar Huff for St. John’s A.M.E., Rev. Glenn Raybon for Trinity Baptist, and Rev. Edward H. Whittaker for New Hope Baptist all were regarded as prominent leaders not only within the African American community, but within the city as a whole.⁵³ Their influence extended beyond the confines of the church and into other institutions. For instance, Rev. Huff became a leaderwithin the local branch of the N.A.A.C.P.⁵⁴

These new buildings and their expanded community spaces therefore became homes for civil rights action. Many meetings were held at the new churches and all three pastors frequently conferred over issues regarding Black life in the city. The new architecture became symbolic of this next era, much like final iteration of the Mother Bethel A.M.E. church. They represent the collective action and dedication of the community, who raised the funds and, in some instances, even helped to construct or renovate these buildings. The civil rights era demonstrated African American’s refusal to hide in plain sight and the construction of these buildings marked their permanent presence in the landscape. The buildings are an act of resistance unto themselves. Nothing exemplifies this more than the dedication of New Hope Baptist church in 1956. Shortly after its opening, Rev. Edward H Whittaker invited Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, whom he knew from his time at the seminary, to give a sermon celebrating the new expansion. Delayed by the Alabama Bus Boycott, Rev. King was greeted to packed crowds in the sanctuary at an event that would become a local legend to this day.⁵⁵

Renovation

The civil rights era does not mark the end of the story for these churches. They continue to play a significant role in the life of the ever-evolving community. As a result, that same community continues to morph their space to fit their needs, just as they had done in the past. These renovations illustrate how the congregation has chosen to formalize some their practices. As Robert Madison eludes to in his interview, architectural design represents a snapshot of a people and place in time. No one can ever adequately predict the future and how people’s needs will change.⁵⁶ Examining the architecture post occupancy clues the viewer into the what those needs are.

In the early 1980s under the leadership of Rev. Carlton Woodward, the congregation of St. John’s A.M.E. Church completed an expansion of the building. During the renovation a basement was added, the choir stand was expanded and a baptismal font was placed in the front of the sanctuary. The result on the exterior was the extension of the building and removal of the major stained-glass window that dominated the façade. Additional wings were also added to each side of the building, allowing for a staircase to the basement and extra room for technical services. A small cupola was also added to the roof of the building.⁵⁷ These changes reinforce the role of the church as both as a place of worship and social infrastructure. Take for instance the expansion of the choir stand. This allowed for music and song to play a larger role in weekly services. This has been a key aspect of Black Christian religious practice that can be traced all the way back to the Hush Harbors. However, it also allowed the choir as a social group within the church to expand, eventually leading the youth and young adult choir to record an album in 1984. Most importantly, in removing the stained glass located at the front of the church, it demonstrates the congregation dedication to one another and the tenants of the AME faith. It shows a willingness to trade architectural ornamentation and “beauty” for functional space thatwould improve the performative act of worship.

In 1987, a larger expansion of the New Hope Baptist church was completed under the leadership of the Pastor Harvey L. Kelley. The expansion, designed by local architect Wallace V. Moll, took many of the same approaches Robert Madison did to directly merge community and worship into one space. Here the original fellowship hall, which was housed in the church’s old storefront sanctuary, was replaced with a much larger building. It contained a larger fellowship hall, a kitchen, offices, and educational facilities for the church. Much like at St. John’s the fellowship hall was then connected to the 1956 sanctuary via an expanded narthex.⁵⁸ This was host to a sitting room with couches and chairs that allowed for smaller casual gatherings in between church services. Also similar to St. John’s, this room doubles as a museum of sorts. Lining the walls are images of the congregation from years past and former locations of the church. Ceremonially adorning one of the side tables is a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. which serves to remind the congregation of his sermon held decades ago.

In placing the narthex in front of the sanctuary, it literally positions the community before the practice of religion itself. It turns notions of western architectural principles on their head. The elaborateness of religious architecture in Western Europe has traditionally been interpreted as a method to prove one’s dedication to God and faith more broadly. Those who did not or could not invest in such an architecture would be deemed inferior and their buildings not worth study. However, to achieve this grandeur a level of formal perfection and purity was to be expected of the architecture. Removing stained glass or covering the facade would be considered next to blasphemy on a gothic revival church. Many would argue that such architectural moves would “ruin” the original composition and design. But what this doesn’t consider is varieties of ways in which people practice religion. Black faith is so deeply intertwined with community building, dating back to the hush harbors, that space dedicated to community gatherings is of equal importance to the life of the church as the sanctuary itself. The effects of this can be seen in the resultant architecture. In both St. John’s AME and New Hope Baptist Church, the communal spaces envelope the sanctuary. They embrace functionalist organizational principles without relying on high modernist aesthetics. They instead use stripped down architectural symbols as a way to elude to a sense of historic religiosity in a cost-efficient manner. This practice harkens back to the aesthetic principles of storefront churches, where simple adaptations of otherwise non-religious buildings are used to shape space and create place. This form of architecture, derided for its disjuncture, represents a true expression of Black space. In overtly subverting the traditional architectural rules of form, the building is able to incorporate space to facilitate Black religious practice which cannot be contained within traditional Christian church typology.

Figure 24: St. John's AME Church, Remodeled Exterior, 2022. Author's Photo.

Figure 25: Walter V. Moll's Rendering of New Hope Baptist Church's Fellowship Hall Expansion(1987-2022), Niagara Gazette Photo Morgue, Niagara Falls Public Library, Niagara Falls, NY.

An examination of the interior of the sanctuary post renovation also reveals a number of small changes made that further reinforce these ideas and demonstrate changing practices within the church. The largest of these changes is the addition of a full immersion baptismal pool, which is located in the apse. Full immersion baptism is a core tenet of the Baptist faith and the pool’s inclusion here further shows how churches in Niagara Falls churches represent the transition from a “found” to “created” space. At the turn of the 20th century, when a distinct Black community was beginning to form in Niagara Falls, many social gatherings were held in rented out community halls. These included church services for the Second Baptist Church, the first known Black religious congregation in the city. While these spaces would suffice for general meetings, they physically could not accommodate some practices such as the full immersion baptism. As a result, the congregation would have to find impromptu locations to conduct suchservices. In the case of the Second Baptist Church, this was Loop Drive Pond, located near Erie Avenue.⁵⁹ These drew in large crowds of both Black residents and fellow Baptists who wished to witness the event. In the 80 years between these ceremonies and the renovation of New Hope Baptist Church, these informal spaces have functionally disappeared. Loop Drive Pond for instance had long been filled in to allow for the construction of new roads and highways. The addition of the pool transforms the architecture to allow the congregation to continue to partake in these ceremonies.

Another significant change to the sanctuary was the remodeling and expansion of the choir stands. During the renovation the choir stands were rotated 90 degrees to allow for the choir to face the congregation. The existing rooms located on both sides of the church were also removed to allow the stands to expand the full width of the sanctuary. The new stands contained staggered seating and removed the half-walls that boxed in the old design. Each of these moves was likely made to open the choir up to the congregation, allowing for a more lively and interactive music experience.

Other smaller redesigns throughout the church further emphasize the opening up of the chancel to the congregation. These changes help to build a more direct connection between the church-goers and the clergy. The first of these smaller changes is the extension made to the pulpit. This new extension allows for the pastor to rest his or her arms higher, physically opening their stance up to the congregation. Compare this to the lectern located on the opposite side of the church, which is specifically dedicated for all non-clergy speakers. With no comfortable location to rest one’s hands, speakers here naturally take a more closed-off stance, placing their arms in front of their torso. This simple change likely affects the way one is able to move and motion throughout their speaking, with the former allowing for more fluid and dynamic movements than the latter. This helps to tailor the space for the call and response preaching styles common amongst Black churches as it gives the preacher more range of motion and acommanding presence in front of the congregation. This is particularly important to the congregation as the pastor’s pulpit was built from scratch by churchgoers themselves. Staying on this same theme, the location of the clergy chairs has been shifted from behind the choir to infront of the choir, helping to maintain a visual connection between the clergy and the congregation throughout the entire service.

Figure 26: New Hope Baptist Church sanctuary interior prior to 1987 expansion (changes highlightedin red), Niagara Gazette Photo Morgue, Niagara Falls Public Library, Niagara Falls, NY.

Figure 27: New Hope Baptist Church sanctuary interior, 2022, Facebook, New Hope Baptist Church.

Figure 28: Pastor's Pulpit, 2022. Facebook, New Hope Baptist Church.

Figure 29: Laity's Lectern, 2022. Facebook, New Hope Baptist Church.

Conclusion

In tracing the history of the Black religious space from the Hush Harbors to the renovated modern churches, the reading seeks to explain how these buildings in particular exist within an architectural lineage unique to African American material culture. In order to do this, it requiresmany to reconceive the metrics by which they judge architectural significance by. Formal uniqueness and monumentality don’t necessarily apply when examining the architecture of many Black communities. Rather one must consider the wider cultural context in which these buildings were created to fully comprehend their value and importance.

The reading proposes the found/adapted/created spatial framework, informed by the settlement patterns of the Great Migration, as a new metric by which to understand space through. Evaluating space making as a continual process allows us to perceive the architectural value in buildings previously considered insignificant or a result purely of economic necessity, such as the storefront church. It also looks to return dignity to the spatial interventions initiated by the community, equally highlighting the changes made after the architect has left the picture. All of this is done in an effort to further highlight the contributions African Americans have made to the built environment and architectural history as whole. Changing the ways architecture and history is evaluated represents only the first step in this process. Much more work needs tobe done to continue recovering more stories that have been lost or passed over throughout time.

Notes

1) Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo. Abiding Courage : African American Migrant
Women and the East Bay Community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

2) John Michael Vlach. "The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy. Part I." Pioneer America 8, no. 1 (1976): 47-56.; John Michael Vlach. "The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy (Part II)." Pioneer America 8, no. 2 (1976): 57.

3) Paul Harvey. Through the Storm, through the Night : A History of African American Christianity / Paul Harvey. The African American History Series. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.

4) Paul Harvey. Through the Storm, through the Night: A History of African American Christianity / Paul Harvey; Suzanne E Smith. To Serve the Living Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. doi:10.4159/9780674054646.

5) Julian Smith Peasant, Jr. "The Arts of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as Viewed in the Architecture, Music and Liturgy of the Nineteenth Century." ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1992.

6) Francis Asbury and Thomas. Coke. The Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. With Explanatory Notes, by T. Coke and F. Asbury. The Tenth Edition. 1798. https://books.google.com/books?id=9lZgAAAAcAAJ.

7) Julian Smith Peasant, Jr. "The Arts of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as Viewed in the Architecture, Music and Liturgy of the Nineteenth Century."

8) Daniel A. Payne. History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 2 vols.: A.M.E. Sunday-School Union, 1891. https://books.google.com/books?id=gkZgyAEACAAJ.

9) J. M. Spenger. "The Hymnody of the African Methodist Episcopal Church." American music (Champaign, Ill.) 8, no. 3 (1990): 274-93. https://doi.org/10.2307/3052097.

10) Historical Report: Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Parks Service, 1963.

11) Melanee C. Harvey. "’Upon This Rock’: Architectural, Material, and Visual Histories of Two Black Protestant Churches,1881-1969." ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017.

12) Daniel A. Payne History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
‍
13) Julian Smith Peasant, Jr. "The Arts of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as Viewed in the Architecture, Music and Liturgy of the Nineteenth Century."; Melanee C Harvey. "’Upon This Rock’: Architectural, Material, and Visual Histories of Two Black Protestant Churches, 1881-1969."; Christopher Scott Hunter. "Influences of African American Religious Practices on the Architecture of Early African American Church Buildings 1842–1917." ProQuestDissertations Publishing, 2018.

14) Adrienne Wartts, “Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church [Philadelphia] (1794- )” BlackPast. Dec. 23, 2010. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mother-bethel-african-methodist-episcopal-ame-church-1794/

15) Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo. Abiding Courage : African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community.
‍
16) Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo. Abiding Courage : African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community.
‍
17) John Michael Vlach. "The Shotgun House: An African Architectural Legacy. Part I."

18) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985. Blacks in Niagara Falls. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021.

19) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985.
‍
20) Internal documentation provided by St. John’s A.M.E. Church (Outline for article submitted to annual Western New York annual conference booklet, 1990s)

21) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "1910 United States Census: Individual Record: Patrick Johnson & John Alexander", in FamilySearch.

22) Internal documentation provided by St. John’s A.M.E. Church (Outline for article submitted to annual Western New York annual conference booklet, 1990s)

23) “Salvation of the Negro Citizen” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Apr. 16, 1900.

24) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985.
‍
25) Feder, H. William. "The Evolution of an Ethnic Neighborhood That Became United in Diversity : The East Side, Niagara Falls, New York, 1880-1930 / by H. William Feder." BMP Inc., 2000.

26) Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Niagara Falls, Niagara County, New York. Sanborn Map Company, 1914. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn06123_004/.; Additionally these changes can be seen in the newspaper clippings found in the Holy Trinity Church Archives.

27) “Rev. Johnson Resents High Handed Proceedings, Says the Second Baptist Had No Cognizance of Cake Walk” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Jun. 6, 1900.

28) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985.
‍
29) Alice Ford’s Tourist Home appears in the Green Book from 1947-1957, while C.A. Brown’s Tourist Home on Main Street appears in both the 1939 and 1940 editions before relocating to Highland Ave. For More information on the Negro Motorist Green Book, see Appendix G.; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. "The Negro Motorist Green Book" (1938-1967) New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 15, 2022. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/88223f10-8936-0132- 0483-58d385a7b928. The reading proposes the found/adapted/created spatial framework, informed by the settlement patterns of the Great Migration, as a new metric by which to understand space through. Evaluating space making as a continual process allows us to perceive the architectural value in buildings previously considered insignificant or a result purely of economic necessity, such as the storefront church. It also looks to return dignity to the spatial interventions initiated by the community, equally highlighting the changes made after the architect has left the picture. All of this is done in an effort to further highlight the contributions African Americans have made to the built environment and architectural history as whole. Changing the ways architecture and history is evaluated represents only the first step in this process. Much more work needs to be done to continue recovering more stories that have been lost or passed over throughout time.

30) “In the Churches (Shiloh Baptist Church” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Feb. 21, 1920.

31) “Deaths & Funerals” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Apr. 23, 1923; “In the Churches – St. John’s G.M.E [Sic] Church” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Oct. 8, 1927.; “Weddings” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls Gazette), Mar. 21, 1925.

32) “Colored People Are Endeavoring To Raise Funds For a New Church” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Jun. 15, 1915.

33) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985.

34) “Colored People Are Endeavoring To Raise Funds For a New Church” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Jun. 15, 1915.

35) Methodist Episcopal Church, Board of Church Extension Price Benjamin D. Catalogue of Architectural Plans for Churches and Parsonages Furnished by the Board of Church Extension of the M.E. Church for the Year 1889. Philadelphia, Pa.: Methodist Episcopal Church, 1889.

36) Melanee C. Harvey. ""Upon This Rock": Architectural, Material, and Visual Histories of Two Black Protestant Churches, 1881-1969."

37) “Colored Members of St. John’s Church Make Liberal Pledges for New Home” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Apr. 2, 1924.

39) “For Sale – Two Good Barber Chairs” Niagara Falls Gazette (Niagara Falls, NY), Mar. 5, 1903.

40) See Ruby McCoy Interview; Internal documentation provided by St. John’s A.M.E. Church (Outline for article submitted to annual Western New York annual conference booklet, 1990s)

41) See Herman “Chuck” Boyer Interview.

42) See Ruby McCoy Interview.

43) Dick Klug, “Church’s 56 Years of Progress Symbolized in New Building” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), May 26, 1962.

44) Dick Klug, “Church’s 56 Years of Progress Symbolized in New Building”, “AME Church Will Launch Fund Drive” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Sep. 6, 1958.

45) Michael B. Boston. "Blacks in Niagara Falls, New York: 1865-1965, a Survey." Afro-Americans in New York life and history 28, no. 2 (2004): 7-49.

46) “St. John’s Lays Stone On Sunday” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Nov. 25, 1961.; Klug, Dick, “Church’s 56 Years of Progress Symbolized in New Building” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), May 26, 1962.

47) “St. John’s Lays Stone On Sunday” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Nov. 25, 1961.

48) Madison, Robert P., and Carlo Wolff. Designing Victory : A Memoir : The Architect Who Dared, Dreamed, and Achieved International Acclaim. 2019.

49) Madison, Robert P., and Carlo Wolff. Designing Victory : A Memoir : The Architect Who Dared, Dreamed, and Achieved International Acclaim

50) Ibid.

51) See Robert P. Madison Interview

52) See Robert P. Madison Interview

53) Michael B. Boston. Blacks in Niagara Falls : Leaders and Community Development, 1850-1985.

54) “Check Presented [Image Caption]” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Jan. 12, 1965.

55) See Harvey Kelley Interview; “Alabama Leader of Bus Boycott to Speak Here”, Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), 1956.

56) See Robert P. Madison Interview.

57) See Robert “Knuckles” Bradley Interview, Appendix B. Internal documentation provided by St. John’s A.M.E. Church (Outline for article submitted to annual Western New York annual conference booklet, 1990s)

58) See Harvey Kelley Interview.

59) “Salvation of the Negro Citizen” Niagara Falls Gazette, (Niagara Falls, NY), Apr. 16, 1900.