“By the 1840s, Chicago’s Black population inched towards 140 people as free Blacks flocked to the city to steer clear of slavery throughout the American South. Some of them started Quinn Chapel AME, the city’s first Black church.
“The year was 1844. Rev. Abraham Hall started a prayer band with six members in the home of John Day, located near State and Lake streets. Two years later, the members made their first purchase, which became the city’s first Black-owned property for religious purposes. By 1847, the church became an official congregation within the African Methodist Episcopal church and was named after Bishop William Paul Quinn, who organized AME churches across the Midwest.
“In its early years, Quinn Chapel stood as a community pillar where even the most affluent members organized their role in the emancipation movement, and today the church remains a relic of when the Christian faith fueled action toward Black liberation.
“One step inside the church offers a portal into the past. There’s a massive organ that the church purchased from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition German pavilion. The church members, ever focused on the church’s financial wellbeing and future, held the first ever June Rose benefit concert to pay for the organ. While they’ve cleared the debt, they’ve hosted the concerts for more than 130 years. ‘It’s kind of a homecoming for everybody,’ Venning said.
“The church’s location — along the Chicago River, with close proximity to Lake Michigan — made it a strategic station along the Underground Railroad. For those on foot to freedom, this location made continuing their journey to Canada easier.
“The historic auditorium, or sanctuary, still has the original woodwork, including the pews. One of the pews is part of a collection in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In light of the federal government’s removal of historic references of Black history in America, Venning said, ‘We haven’t gotten it back from those folks in Washington yet. We don’t know if it’s coming, but if they start to get rid of stuff at that museum, we want our pew back.’
“To memorialize all the patriotic sacrifices Quinn Chapel members made, the church was designated a Chicago landmark in 1977, and in 1979, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
“The building was surprisingly warm in the dead of a winter morning in February. Venning said they recently completed a $650,000 HVAC upgrade to keep the church cool in the heat of summer, and warm in the frost of winter. The upgrades are part of a decades-long $12 million renovation that will be paid for, in part, by $9.4 million earmark from the State of Illinois, and $227,000 from the National Fund for Sacred Places, with matching funds the church raised.
At the edge of the pulpit is a lectern where many historic American figures once stood, including, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and Ida B. Wells. They denounced hate and amplified messages of freedom and equality.
“And 133 years later, that church is still standing.” (Johnson, WBEZ Chicago, 3/14/26)