Lowell Heights-Olivet National Register Nomination and site plans

Home Browse Search

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Lowell Heights-Olivet African Methodist Episcopal Church St. Joseph County, IN Name of Property County and State Sections 9-end page 17 nearby at 114 N. Ironwood Drive on the city's far east side. This occurred on April 21, 1968 and the new name of Evangel Heights United Methodist was adopted. ETHNIC HERITAGE The building on Notre Dame Avenue was sold to the Olivet African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) congregation who held dedication rites on December 7, 1969. Reverend Roderick Johnson was the pastor during the move from downtown South Bend to the Notre Dame Avenue building. The move was considered necessary for the city’s planned downtown renewal program. That program was never fully implemented to cause the removal of the congregation’s old building on Monroe Street. The church’s membership was 326 when it changed locations to the former Lowell Heights building, and had always “directed its programs of activities toward the religious and social improvement of local black residents.”3 The African Methodist Episcopal denomination traces its history to 1787 when its founder, Richard Allen, was excluded from a white congregation in Philadelphia of the same denomination. During the late 1860s, Bishop William Paul Quinn of the A.M.E. denomination visited Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan and encouraged the establishment of several churches, including what would become the Olivet congregation. A total of 20 congregations were established during that time of missionary outreach including those located in Elkhart, Gary, Michigan City, LaPorte, Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Niles, Cassopolis, and Three Rivers. The Olivet A. M. E. congregation first formed in 1870. It was the first, and is the oldest African- American congregation in South Bend/St. Joseph County. Some of its original nine members were part of the Huggart settlement, the first settlement of free African-Americans in St. Joseph County, while others were some of the city's earliest residents and first burials in the city cemetery. The first pastor was Revered Bundy. The congregation was the only church for African-Americans for many years and was simply known as "the colored church" on the city's near southwest side. The congregation constructed a building in 1872, which became known as Olivet Chapel as other African-American churches formed in the city. They replaced the 1872 building with a new building in 1917, which is extant at 310 West Monroe Street. In 1968, the congregation participated in a city-wide rally on civil rights. The rally included Mrs. Frankie Muse Freeman, the only woman appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The congregation hosted “A Pageant on Negro History” during the rally. The pastor at the time of the move to Notre Dame Avenue Roderick Johnson, led South Bend’s local civil rights organization during the 1960s, but stepped away from its leadership to focus on the congregation’s new home. The $60,000 mortgage on the Notre Dame Avenue building was paid off and burned in April 1976 after a celebration banquet was held at the Indiana Club in South Bend. The building on Notre Dame Avenue continues to serve the Olivet A.M.E. congregation today as they enter their 150th year anniversary (2020) and near the building's centennial in 2023. 3 Pontius, Gertrude 5 Dec 1969 South Bend Tribune