St. John A.M.E. Church
Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Early Congregation. The A.M.E. Church was established in Frankfort, 1839, by Negroes before days of emancipation. First structure built on Lewis Street. Building and ground given by Mrs. Triplett, a white lady, to her servants, Benjamin Dunmore and Benjamin Hunley. In 1881, Rev. D. S. Bentley gave the name "St. John" to the A.M.E. Church. Present church built in 1893.
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
African Americans in Frankfort established this African Methodist Episcopal congregation in 1839, decades before emancipation, worshipping in a building on Lewis Street that a white woman, Mrs. Triplett, gave along with the ground to her servants Benjamin Dunmore and Benjamin Hunley. The congregation took the name "St. John" in 1881 under the Rev. D. S. Bentley, and the present church was built in 1893.
Why it matters
An A.M.E. church founded under slavery, it embodies the determination of enslaved and free Black Americans to build independent institutions of faith and self-governance well before the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Dunmore
- · Benjamin Hunley
- · D. S. Bentley
Themes & tags
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