In the years following the Civil War, churches served as the focal point of many African American communities. The church was not only a place for worship and prayer, but a foundation for forging a stronger community that included education and the preservation of cultural identity. Sometimes the church and the school occupied the same building, as was likely the case for the first meeting place of the Minor Chapel AME Church in Taylorsville, Kentucky.
A circa 1991 photograph of the church from the National Register of Historic Places files. Photograph by Carolyn Brooks.
In 1869, Merritt Beard, Westley Minor, and Nathaniel Matthews, “men of color,” received the deed to Lots 100 and 101 on the south side of Garrard Street in Taylorsville. The deed stated that the lots were to held in trust “for the use of the colored population for the purpose of erecting a school house.” By 1882 a small wood-framed school was in place on the lot, and it was probably in that building that Taylorsville’s second African American congregation met.
The façade of the church today. Vinyl siding has sadly covered the shingles and the windows have been replaced.
A little more than a decade later, the congregation constructed their own church building on Jefferson Street, on the north side of Main Street. The frame, front gable building with a corner tower was built on a dry-laid limestone foundation. The façade featured a gable with decorative hexagonal and saw-tooth shingles.
One window pierced the façade wall, while three, 4/4 double-hung sash windows provided light on the sides.
The 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance map is the first to show the area north of Main Street, although it doesn’t encompass the location of the Minor Chapel AME Church. The building shown above belonged to the town’s first African American population and was demolished in 1936. Minor Chapel is located to the left of this lot.
The sanctuary was composed of one large room, with a cove ceiling clad in tongue and groove sheathing. A stove on the north wall provided heat during the winter months. On the east end of the room, a raised platform served as the altar and pulpit.
A circa 1991 image of the interior of the church. Image from the National Register of Historic Places files. Photograph by Carolyn Brooks.
In 1991, the church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its historic significance and association with the African American community in Taylorsville. Since that time, the church’s footprint expanded with the construction of a Sunday School room, and several material modifications were made (vinyl siding and window replacement among them).
The south elevation on the church.
It now appears to be owned by the adjacent Second Baptist Church (the original African American congregation in Taylorsville, organized in 1866). I don’t know if this small frame church is still in use, but at least it is still standing.
Great!