** 1816 **

Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, presently located at 1334 29th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., has been for the past 180 years an integral and viable part of Georgetown and has served the religious, educational and social needs of a significant portion of the Washington community.

The roots of the church can be traced back further than the first group of organized black Methodists in Georgetown in 1816. For over a decade before, those who eventually composed the Mt. Zion congregation had been a part of the Montgomery Street Church founded in 1772 and known today as the Dumbarton Avenue United Methodist Church, located on Dumbarton Avenue near Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. in Georgetown.

In the early 1800's Georgetown was a major port for the slave and tobacco trade in the area and a center for mills and markets for the newly created city of Washington. Its population was one-third black - half freedmen and half slaves. Some of them attended the Montgomery Street Church. Between 1801 and 1810 their numbers fluctuated between 37 and 97. At times nearly 50% of the membership consisted of their "coloured brethren." After 1810 the number increased rapidly.

Dissatisfied because they were segregated within the white church, about 123 blacks attending the Montgomery Street Church met on June 3, 1814, to consider forming a separate congregation under the supervision of the parent church. Among the leaders were Lucy Neal, Polly Hill, William Crusor, William Trumwell, Shadrack Nugent, Thomas Mason and Tamar Green.

On October 1, 1816, the dissidents purchased a lot on Mill Street (now 27th) near West Street (now P Street) from Henry Foxall, a white foundry owner and officer of the Montgomery Street Church. There they built a church known as "The Meeting House and "The Little Ark." White ministers from the Montgomery Street Church served as its pastors for many years.

The following 64 years brought several major changes to the black congregation. On the suggestion of the Reverend Stephen G. Roszei, an outspoken anti-slavery leader and a pastor of the mother church, the name of the new church was changed in 1844 to Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. At that time there were 54 members. Dissension over the need for black leadership resulted in a split in the congregation in 1849 and the formation of three African Methodist Churches: Ebenezer, Union Wesley and John Wesley. Fifteen years later, Mt. Zion welcomed its black minister, the Reverend John H. Brice. Tragedy struck on July 13, 1880, when the church burned to the ground after which the congregation met temporarily in the Good Samaritan Hall, located in what is now the 1500 block of 26th Street, N.W.

Prior to the fire, the congregation had purchased for $2,581.00 on July 13, 1875, a lot from Alfred Pope, a black businessman of Georgetown and a trustee of the church. Construction of the new edifice was begun on the present site. Much of the workmanship was done by black artisans, including one of the pastors, the Reverend Alexander Dennis and his associate, the Reverend Edgar Murphy.

The cornerstone was laid July 13, 1876, and re-laid May 10, 1880. On October 31, 1880, the first service was held in the partially completed lecture room. The church was dedicated on July 8, 1884.

Some of the descendants of the building committee - John Grey, Henry Bowles, Barton Fisher, James Ferguson, Daniel Brown and Peter Vessels are the members of the church today.

Since no public funds were expended for the education of black people in the city of Washington until 1862, Mt. Zion became an educational center for the black population. Its first Sabbath School, organized in 1823, had a large enrollment, and its effect in promoting educational progress of the black citizens of Georgetown was considered invaluable. Adult members, as well as children, came to learn how to read. From 1840 through the Reconstruction Era, several schools sponsored by black men and the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association were housed in the church.

The records indicate that until slavery was abolished Mt. Zion served as one of the stations in the Underground Railroad, and the vault in the nearby Old Methodist Burying Ground was used as a hideout for runaway slaves until their passage North could be arranged.

Extension and improvement of the physical plant included the construction of a new parsonage at 2902 0 Street, N.W. (completed in 1897), the purchase in 1920 of the property next door used for many years as a community house, and several renovations of the church and parsonage.

Mt. Zion realized that it needed a burying ground for its members. "For a sum of one dollar in hand." the church leased for 99 years the unoccupied east end of the Dumbarton Church Cemetery located on Mill Road (behind the 2600 block of Q Street, N. W.) in 1879. On this site were buried a Part of Dumbarton's congregation, slaves of other Washington areas. The west end was purchased by the Female Union Band Society, organized in 1842, for the burial of free blacks. Through the years, the two cemeteries have been considered jointly as the Mt. Zion Cemetery. In 1950, interments ceased.

An exhaustive historical study of the Mt. Zion section of the cemetery and the burials there was done by the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation. In 1975, the cemetery became an Historical Landmark of the National Capital and on August 6, 1975, was placed on the national Register of Historical Places.

The restoration of the cemetery as a fitting memorial to black presence in Georgetown is underway. Dumbarton Church as the owner and Mt. Zion as the primary user have been joined in support by the Society for the Preservation of Historic Georgetown. Community churches, also, are cooperating in this effort.

The Mount Zion United Community House, erected 1811 and believed to be the only remaining English style cottage in the District of Columbia, was restored and returned to community use in 1985 to help recapture the history and presence of the Black community in the Historic District of Georgetown.

The Community House was restored with private funds, grants from the United Methodist Church, and a historic preservation matching grant from the District of Columbia. Bryant and Bryant AIA, Architects and Planners, conducted the architectural studies, and Georgetown Building Company was the general contractor. Because it has contributed significantly to the visual beauty and cultural heritage of the District of Columbia, Mt. Zion United Methodist Church was designated in June 1974, in Category II of the Inventory of Historical! Landmarks of the District of Columbia. It was also placed on the National Register of Historical Places on July 21, 1975.

Mt. Zion is a church of families, many of which date back to its inception. Only a few still reside in Georgetown; most scattered throughout the city and suburbs. They are proud of and grateful to their ancestors for founding and sustaining the church, and they have a strong desire to maintain the continuity of the black Methodist Church in the District of Columbia and the oldest congregation in this city.