Established in 1830, St. John African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church at East 40th Street and Central Avenue in the Central neighborhood is the oldest Black congregation in Cleveland.

For more than a century, the St. John AME congregation has advocated for Civil Rights and been active in social outreach—offering youth, senior, and health programs in the Central neighborhood.

The original charter was issued in 1836 to the African Methodist Episcopal Society, a group of six ex-slaves who had been recruited in 1830 by Father William Paul Quinn, an AME pastor and missionary in New Jersey who traveled by horse to preach to African Americans about the new denomination.

Quinn was named bishop in the AME Church in 1843 and was highly regarded for his 25 years of work until he died in 1873—the longest presiding bishop in the AME’s history. In his tenure, Quinn started churches throughout the Midwest and worked with the Underground Railroad.

Exterior view of St. John's African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church with inset that depicts the Reverend Ira A. CollinsAt first, the new congregation met in each other’s homes before moving to a meeting space on the third floor of a building. In January 1850, the Cleveland AME Church moved into its first church building on Bolivar and Prospect Avenue, where the congregation dedicated the building as Bolivar Street AME Church and remained for 13 years.

They moved in 1863 to another church building on what is today Carnegie Avenue (Ohio Street in the 1860s) and became Ohio Street AME Church, which was partially destroyed by an 1877 fire.

In 1878 the congregation moved to what is today East 9th Street (Erie Street), when the name became St. John AME Church. Legend says many members referred to this home as “Old Erie Street Church.”

By the early 1900s, the growing St. John AME Church congregation concluded it again needed a new space. So in 1907, church officials bought the land at East 40th and Central and hired the architectural firm Badgley & Nicklas to design the church at 2261 E. 40th Street, which St. John AME still calls home today.

Sydney Rose Badgley worked independently and in partnership with William Nicklas. The partners designed almost 20 buildings in Greater Cleveland, with 10 structures being churches, including St. Timothy Missionary Baptist Church in MidTown, and Lakewood United Methodist Church. 

In his solo career, Badgley was known in Cleveland and throughout the Midwest and the East Coast for his Gothic Revival church designs and homes around the Hough neighborhood, he also designed stunning theaters and academic buildings in styles ranging from Georgian Revival to Richardson Romanesque.

In Cleveland, he was known for his design of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Tremont and the Jones Home for Friendless Children in Clark-Fulton.

Architect John F. Aring with Badgley & Niclas designed the Neo-Gothic church in red brick, which is noted for its Tudor hoods over the corner tower windows, its Perpendicular style tracery, and the decorative pointed arched bands in the brickwork along the parapets of both the high and low towers. 

In 1908 the church cornerstone was laid by the Masons and celebrated with a parade from East 24th Street to the construction site. The building was completed later that same year for $55,000.

St. John AME Church interiorThe congregation continued to grow in its new location—reaching more than 3,000 by the end of World War II.

The church continues its history of social and community outreach to this day—serving as a recreational center since the 1920s and acting as advocates for Civil Rights. The church hosts after-school programs, summer camps, senior day care, and regular health fairs.

Additionally, St. John AME has hosted Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, and singer Marian Anderson in her first Cleveland concert in 1919.

St. John AME was recognized as a Cleveland Historic Landmark in 1974 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in December 1982.

In 2005, the church underwent a $1 million renovation, led by Cleveland architecture firm Robert P. Madison International, which today led by Madison’s niece Sandra Madison, is the largest Black, female-owned architecture firm in Ohio.

The project involved upgrades to the physical and mechanical components and earned St. John AME a Celebration of Preservation Award from the Cleveland Restoration Society.

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