Mt. Calvary African Methodist Episcopal Church

Mt. Calvary African Methodist Episcopal Church. . During the early 19th century, people of color in the Concord area both free and slave worshipped at a local Methodist church. After the Civil War, church members decided that African American parishioners should support themselves now that they were free. As a result church doors were closed and locked, and African American parishioners effectively barred from attending services. Without hate or malice the excluded group declared that a service would be held the following Sunday. An old log cabin belonging to member Noah Boyce was refurbished, and the following Sunday an inaugural service was held. By 1866, the group had moved to a building called "The Granary" on land belonging to Hattie Stewart; this structure was eventually moved to a nearby site on higher ground known as "The Grove." During this time, Reverend Emory C. (Chandler) Gaines, a follower of early African Methodist Episcopal Church leader Bishop Richard Allen, traveled to Concord. Under his leadership a new church was constructed and dedicated as Mount Calvary in 1872. Remodeled in 1894, the church building was destroyed by fire on March 23, 1921 and less than one year later a new structure, also named Mt. Calvary, was built across the street. In 1964, W. Coleridge Moore proposed that a larger building be constructed on the original 1872 site. Funds were raised, and within one year a new Mt. Calvary AME Church was dedicated on July 25, 1965.