Jackson Street United Methodist Church

Jackson Street United Methodist Church. Oldest African-American Methodist Church in Lynchburg. , Jackson Street United Methodist Church is Lynchburg's oldest African-American Methodist church and the City's second oldest independent black congregation. It was organized shortly after the Civil War, drawing its membership from the "colored congregations" within the various white Methodist churches of Lynchburg., The cornerstone of Jackson Street Methodist was laid in October 1866, and the new brick church was dedicated three years later, on October 17, 1869. The Church's beautiful stained glass memorial windows were installed in 1907, during extensive renovations to the original church building., During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jackson Street Methodist was one of the most influential churches in Lynchburg. Among its congregation were some of the City's most prominent African-Americans, including Jefferson Anderson, one of Lynchburg's first two black members of City Council; Frank Trigg, Jr., Lynchburg public school principal and president of three colleges; and Irvine Garland Penn, nationally-recognized author and editor of Lynchburg's first black newspaper, The Laborer., Thanks to the many educators who belonged to the Church, Jackson Street Methodist played a preeminent role in early African-American education in Central Virginia. The Church hosted a Freedmen's Bureau school during Reconstruction, and from 1881 to 1891, public school classes were held in the Church's basement lecture room. The first African-American high school graduation in Lynchburg was held at Jackson Street Methodist Church in 1886. In the early 1890s the congregation was responsible for establishing a branch of Morgan College of Baltimore, Maryland, in Central Virginia. The Morgan College Annex, also known as Virginia Collegiate and Industrial Institute, opened in 1893 just outside Lynchburg, in what is now Fairview Heights., In 1885 the Jackson Street Methodist congregation organized the first independent African-American cemetery in the Lynchburg area, known today as White Rock Cemetery., [Captions:] , Isham and Mariah Penn family, members of the Church, c. 1895. Irvine Garland Penn (1867-1930), standing at far right, was a nationally-recognized author and editor of Lynchburg's first black newspaper., Original church building, built 1866-1869, shown before extensive renovations in 1907, Rev. Henry and Mildred Campbell, charter members of the Church. Rev. Campbell shoveled the first earth at the Church's groundbreaking in 1866., Stained glass memorial window, installed in the sanctuary in 1907, Students posing on the Church steps, c. 19900, Church sanctuary, c. 1940, during the last meeting of the Washington Annual Conference of the Methodist Church held at Jackson Street