First African New Church, 10th and V Streets, NW

First African New Church, about 1930.

Ever made a cool $1.1 million in a year flipping a property without doing anything to it?  The owner of this abandoned church building did in 2002.  DCMud blog did a recent update on plans for the building here. 

The large vacant church structure at 2105-2107 10^th Street is significant both for its architectural history, having been designed by well known architect Paul J. Peltz, and for its social history, as a structure and site that has been continually occupied and owned by an African American religious congregation from 1879 to 2002.      

        

Its current building has evolved from a major addition and substantial alteration in 1896 to an existing, one story brick building that had been constructed without a building permit sometime between 1887 and 1895.  In 1896, it was significantly expanded by its congregation with the addition of a large sanctuary on the third floor and a large corner tower, designed by well-known architect Paul J. Pelz, creating the church building that remains to this date.            

The adjacent corner lot at 10^th and V Streets was the site of a wood frame church for many years prior to the brick one story church building that formed the basis for the structure that remains today.  Its origins can be traced to the northwest corner of Vermont and T Streets, in 1878, when the Abyssinian Baptist Church was first listed in the City Directory.  At the time, Reverend Henry Bailey was in charge of the small congregation that worshiped there in a one story, frame building.  Bailey lived at 1818 Vermont Avenue, and the year later at 1814 Vermont Avenue. 

However, on March 14, 1879, the Abyssinian Baptist Church obtained a permit to move their building to the “corner of 10^th and V Street, NW.”  The cost of this move was estimated at $50.  It is assumed that the church moved its church due to the increase of land value at Vermont and T Streets, as several large homes were constructed that year and the year prior across the street, and to gain a larger lot at 10^th and V.  Early maps show the new location of the frame church resting directly on the corner of 10^th and V Streets.  Its congregation stemmed from freed slaves, black Washington residents, and Civil War soldiers and their dependants that had been stationed at nearby Fort Campbell at 6^th and Florida Avenue.               

The church as an active worship site

Along with the move came a name change for the church, and possibly new ownership.  The 1881 City Directory lists the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church at 10th and V Street, N.W.  It was organized in 1880.  The pastor in attendance was listed as Reverend Peter C. Louis.  Services were held at 11 am and 7:30 pm, with Sunday school at 3 pm.  City Directories classify the church as “Methodist Episcopal-Colored.”  Trinity would remain at the 10th street address until 1892 when the church was renamed “Zion.”  On March 28, 1882, the church obtained a permit to “repair building where damaged by fire.”  Washington DC Fire Department records indicate that a fire had occurred on January 30, 1882 that had caused an estimated damage of $250.     

An 1887 Baist map shows the square-shaped, wood frame building at the corner of 10^th and V Street, with a vacant rear yard facing the Union Court alley (where the present day, brick church structure stands today).  Sometime between 1887 and 1896, a one story, brick church building was erected at the rear of the lot, apparently without a building permit.  It is likely that the older wood frame building was no longer viable for maintenance, and a replacement building constructed at the rear of the lots, facing 10^th Street, while the congregation continued to worship in the older structure.  The brick, one story building was mentioned in an expansion permit dated 1896, when the church was significantly added onto to create what is the present day building.