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Meade was able to support a priest of its own, the parish applied to the Christ Church Vestry to leave their mission status under the care of Christ Church, and become an independent parish church in the diocese of
Virginia. With this, the parish was committing to be financially self-supporting and was also able to select its own clergy; in May 1890 Meade Chapel became officially Meade Memorial Church. When the Rev. Burke left in 1892, the parish reverted to mission status, pastored by seminarians. In 1907 the Rev. Joseph F. Mitchell began his ministry at Meade and remained there for 11 years.
84:. This school was part of a movement across the South to provide education to Black children and adults by religious and benevolent societies. The laws of Virginia had prohibited the education of Blacks for the 30 years before the Civil War, and there was a tremendous pent-up demand by African-Americans for learning at all levels. A bell, cast in 1871, called parishioners to worship and also served as the school bell for the neighborhood Black children who attended the day school at the chapel. This same bell still hangs in front of Meade Memorial Episcopal Church on Alfred St.
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self-segregation by members of the Black community that led to the Vestry resolution that "Meade Chapel be placed at their disposal for one year, provided the signatures of not less than fifty persons of the age of sixteen years and over can be obtained, promising to make that their regular place of worship, and provided further that they will pay for the fuel &c". Within 6 months the required signatures had been gathered, and on April 16, 1873, the
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building down
Columbus St. was halted. Within a week the complaints concerning the new location of this "colored Episcopal chapel" had been resolved, and the contractor continued with the relocation. While the White parishioners of the northend chapel moved their worship to Christ Church, the first service at Meade Chapel (colored), now situated in its new location on the corner of Columbus and Princess Streets, was held on 18 May 1876.
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DC. to raise the $ 10,000 needed for a new church building. In 1911 the site on
Princess and Columbus was sold, and a larger property a few blocks up in the Uptown neighborhood was purchased. The following year construction on the new building was started, and in February 1913 the congregation was able to celebrate with Rev. Mitchell in their new brick chapel on Princess and Alfred St.
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The church remains a parish which translates its faith into direct action and community service. They continue to make their mark in the Uptown neighborhood with their annual Jazz
Concerts and a weekday preschool housed in their building. In 2022 the new landscaping of the Chelsea Washington Memorial
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By this time the condition of the actual Meade worship hall raised concern; originally built in 1870, the wooden structure was showing its age. It was decided that the ‘dilapidated’ building needed to be replaced, and a building fund was started by the
Episcopal churches in Alexandria and Washington,
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The Rev. William P. Burke was one of the first of the Bishop Payne graduates who came to Meade Chapel in
November 1889 as a deacon. Within months, in February 1890, the Rev. Burke was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church, and as such was able to celebrate the Eucharist in his parish. Now that
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under the supervision of the rector of Christ Church. In 1876 the first Black minister, the Rev. John H. M. Pollard, was hired for Meade Chapel. While
Pollard only stayed at Meade for a few years, it was the beginning of an influential career for this Black Episcopalian priest, who went on to become
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For the next three years John J. Lloyd, who had presented the original request of Black
Episcopalians to the Christ Church Vestry, remained active and supportive of the Meade community. Schooling remained a priority for children in the Black Uptown neighborhood. The Sunday School enrolled between 50
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It was through his contacts at the school that Mr. Lloyd was able to report to the Christ Church Vestry in 1872 that "quite a number of colored persons had expressed a desire that would furnish a suitable place to be used as an
Episcopal Church for colored persons". It was this expressed wish for
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In the same year, 1873, the Christ Church Vestry resolved to move the actual building from the north edge of town further south on
Columbus St. A lot was donated on the corner of Princess and Columbus Streets as a new site for the existing Chapel building; this would make it more accessible to the
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The investment in the physical plant has matched the continued investment of the Meade community in the social and spiritual investment in their parish and neighborhood. Starting in 1871 with their very first "colored Sunday School", then growing into a parish day school for the Black children of
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The new Meade Memorial Church on Alfred Street was a simple one-room chapel without a rectory, parish hall, or organ, but it served its established African-American congregation well. On cold Sundays parishioners would come in early to stoke the coal furnace and warm the church for services. This
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pastored at Meade Memorial in the early days of his career; he went on to become the first ordained Black bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC. During the racial upheavals of the 1960s, the activist pastor Rev. Davis encouraged the young people at Meade to lend their own voice to the
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reported on April 23, 1873, that the "building known as Meade Chapel was put on rollers yesterday, moved into Columbus street" under the supervision of the contractor Mr. B. F. Price. The move did not go without problems. Neighbors of the proposed new site complained, and the progression of the
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This original brick chapel still stands, now part of a larger church complex which has grown over the last century. Through fundraising in the early 1950s a new parish hall was completed in 1956. The sanctuary of 1911 was modernized; the altar was moved to the north wall, and the dark mahogony
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Meade Chapel was one of 10 Black churches founded in Alexandria following the Civil War to support freed African Americans as they formed new communities and associations. These include Zion Baptist, 1864; Shiloh Baptist, around 1863; Third Baptist Church, 1865; Meade Memorial, 1869; Ebenezer
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residents of the Black neighborhood of Uptown. It was not uncommon to move existing buildings to new locations as the town expanded; however, moving this building, a wooden hall which could hold 150 people and more, south down Columbus St. was an ambitious project. The
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Uptown, the parish has continued to make itself an integral and relevant presence in the segregated African-American community of Alexandria of the 20th century, including programs in children's ministry, community service, adult education, and missions.
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building, situated in the middle of the Uptown neighborhood, became a meeting place both spiritually and as a center for Black social, political and economic movements during the decades of segregation in the early 20th century.
69:, ministering to new migrants to the town following the dislocations of the Civil War. The initial site of the chapel was on the NE corner of Montgomery and Columbus Streets, on a parcel which the church had negotiated with the
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an archdeacon in North Carolina. Following Rev. Pollard's departure in 1881, the charge of Meade returned to the care of the White seminarians at VTS. They could now also draw from the new African-American
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paneling and pews were replaced with a lighter pine interior. A playground was constructed in the churchyard, and the new parish hall included a second story with offices and classrooms.
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was able to report, "Meade Chapel, in which it is proposed that the colored Episcopalians shall worship, will remain under the control of the rector and trustees of Christ Church."
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and 90 children during these early years. Under Lloyd's direction, a "parish school for colored children" was also established, with an enrollment of about 100 young scholars.
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The church building itself was moved in 1873 from the northern edge of Alexandria to the more centrally located Black neighborhood of
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As part of its mission, Meade Chapel established and ran a "colored Sunday School" under the direction of
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Services at Meade Chapel were led for the most part by White seminary students from the segregated
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Terry, David Taft (2009). "Community, Service, and Faith: Meade Church in the mid-20th Century".
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Baptist, 1881; Good Shepard Episcopal Chapel, 1883; Mt. Jezreel, 1890; and Oakland Baptist, 1891.
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Randle, Julie (2009). "Meade Chapel: Creation and Perserverance".
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For more on the historic Black neighborhoods of Alexandria, see
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was originally established in 1870 as an outreach mission of
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Garden continues to beautify this historic church building.
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Information on the History of Christ Church, Alexandria
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under the supervision of the rector of Christ Church.
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429:Courageous Journey
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346:References
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233:Caulk n.d.
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103:Gazette
53:History
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