Historic Nashville, Inc

Description

A photograph of the Capers Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church located at 319 Fifteenth Avenue North, Nashville, Tennessee. This building was built in 1925 by the nation's first African-American-owned architectural firm, McKissack and McKissack. It is a two-story Neo-Classical brick structure featuring a sheet metal pediment on the main facade supported by four stone Doric pilasters. The congregation has a rich history, whose forebears worshipped as Christian slaves in a brick house near the Sulphur Spring as early as 1832. Capers was a mission of McKendree Methodist Church located downtown. McKendree helped the congregation build this first church. Leading this African Mission was William Capers, a South Carolina slave owner who became a Methodist bishop. As pastor to the slaves, he was considered the slaves' most sympathetic spokesman. In 1853 when the church moved from Sulphur Springs to a new building on Eleventh Avenue North, the church was officially named for Bishop Capers. In 1887 the Capers Church moved to a new building at 1111 Church Street until 1925, when it moved to its present site, 319 Fifteenth Avenue North. The present church has a concrete foundation. The exterior walls are red brick with stone accents. The roof is gabled. The windows are stained glass, tall, arched, and covered by plexiglass. Frosted glass windows line the basement level. The doors use both metal and glass materials. In 1985 Capers Memorial C.M.E. Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Forms part of the Historic Nashville, Inc. Sacred...

Record Contributed By

Nashville Public Library

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Tennessee