3rd Street Bethel AME Church

The 3rd Street Bethel AME Church is one of the most historic churches in Jackson Ward

NPS Photo/Maggie L. Walker NHS

Quick Facts

Location:

Corner of 3rd Street and Jackson Street

Significance:

Historic Church and location of Maggie L. Walker's 1901 Address

Designation:

National Register of Historic Places

MANAGED BY:

3rd Street Bethel AME Church

Third Street Bethel A.M.E. Church has a rich legacy indeed. This church traces its origins to the white-run Trinity Methodist Church. The African American members left to organize a church of their own and this church was built around 1856 by enslaved and free African Americans. Third Street Bethel A.M.E. was home to one of the earliest Freedman’s Bureau schools in Richmond after the Civil War. Many schools were organized under the auspices of the Bureau to assist the newly freed in successfully transitioning from slavery to freedom. This church would become the site of several noted speeches.

Pioneering female banker Maggie L. Walker delivered several noted addresses here including the one in 1901 that espoused the need for the creation of a bank by the Independent Order of St. Luke. Because of its rich legacies, the church is on both the state and national historic registries