Bethel AME Church (Reading, Pennsylvania)
Bethel AME Church, now known as the Central Pennsylvania African American Museum, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church at 119 North 10th Street in Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1837, and is a 2½-storey brick and stucco building with a gable roof. It was rebuilt about 1867–1869, and remodeled in 1889. It features a three-storey brick tower with a pyramidal roof topped by a finial. The church is known to have housed fugitive slaves and the congregation was active in the Underground Railroad. The church is now home to a museum dedicated to the history of African Americans in Central Pennsylvania. The only AME church in Berks County to have been built using private resources from its congregation, Bethel AME was founded by George Dillen, Samuel Murray, Isaac Parker, and Jacob Ross. Of those four, Murray was the one most involved with the building's construction. Closely aligned with Philadelphia's Mother Bethel AME Church, "Men preached from the pulpits but the ladies were responsible for organizing benevolent societies and mission circles, teaching classes in the large Sunday Schools attached to both congregations, as well as singing in the choir and providing a musical accompaniment for the Sunday services," according to historian Barbara Goda.Reading's Bethel AME Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Bethel AME Church (Reading, Pennsylvania) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).Bethel AME Church (Reading, Pennsylvania)
North 10th Street, Reading
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Geographical coordinates (GPS)
Latitude | Longitude |
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N 40.3375 ° | E -75.918055555556 ° |
Address
Reading Civic Theatre
North 10th Street 126
19601 Reading
Pennsylvania, United States
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