St. John’s Church

St. John’s Church

By Jack Coll

This past Sunday, (November 24, 2013) was a cold beautiful day.  The Reverend Edith J. Patterson Payne, Pastor of the historic St. John’s AME Church located on the northeast corner of Eighth Avenue and Harry Street was in all her glory.  The interior of the church recently had a facelift, and the makeover is evident the moment you walk in.

In order to trace this small, but proud church’s history we thumbed back through the history books more than 150 years, shortly after the borough’s incorporation.  In the 1860’s, around the time of the Civil War, African Americans free of the slave trade found their way to Conshohocken for an opportunity to work at the Alan Wood Steel Company.  Many of the Wood African American employees lived in tent cities on the Alan Wood Company property, many of the huts they lived in were located just outside of Mogeetown.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in April of 1816 by Reverend Richard Allen and a number of other members of African descent.  A former blacksmith shop located on the corner of 6^th and Lombard Sts. in Philadelphia was the original site for the church.  The commute to Philadelphia in order to worship was out of the question in the 1870,s and 1880’s when local African Americans started to band together in search of a place to worship.

Before long local Methodist residents formed their own congregation complete with a Board of Trustees and gathered each Sunday to Worship at Stemple’s Hall once located on lower Forrest Street.  Eight parishioners attended services in 1877, they were led by Rev. A. H. Campbell.  In 1880 the Conshohocken Board of Trustees of St. John of Conshohocken purchased land for $200.00 from Mr. and Mrs. John Auger.  A beautiful church building was erected in 1881 and has served St. John’s AME for the past 131 years.

The church has up-graded its facilities many times over the years.  In 1928 under the guidance of Pastor J. H. Caulk a stone wall was built along Eighth Avenue, new steps, a walk and installed new carpeting in the church.  In 1943 with the help of the congregation Rev. Sterling Pinkett enlarged the narthex and chancel, and added an office as part of the new addition.  In 1949 under Rev. Guyton the parishioners painted the interior and exterior of the church, in 1950 they added a new oil heating system.  Throughout the 1950’s improvements continued with new roofing, gutters and spouting.  A new piano was purchased ($675.00) new pulpit furniture, new carpet, and a new alter set.

In 1963 under Rev. Roosevelt Swinney, new flooring was laid, sidewalk repairs, the interior of the church was painted and an organ was purchased.  Because of the strength of the African Methodist Church they had no problems allowing females spread the word of God from the pulpit and Cora L. Palmer was the first female appointed to the Conshohocken Church.  Under the guidance of Rev. Palmer the Guyton Memorial Hall was built.  The Grand Hall was constructed by members and relatives of the church.  One of the primary contractors came in from South Carolina Mr. Thomas, who was the father-in-law of Louis Mason.

For the past 18 years Rev. Edith J. Patterson-Payne has guided the members of St. John’s Church, and Rev. Payne has shown no signs of taking her foot off the gas pedal.  Rev. Payne was left with the task of finishing Guyton Memorial Hall.  Interior work, bathroom stalls, blacktopping the parking area in the rear of the building and establishing the Rev. Cora L. Palmer Memorial Garden.  (Betty Roe has continued to do a beautiful job with the garden).  While Rev. Payne has continued to maintain and up-grade the church she has truly renovated the entire look of the interior of the worship area of the church.  Gone are the dark paneling, old ceiling tiles and dim lighting.  St. John’s Church has been totally renovated and may we say a facility certainly worth visiting.

St. John’s Church is without a doubt the most charming worshiping facility in the Montgomery County area.  Everyone is invited to see the renovations for themselves and join in the celebration held at St. John’s every Sunday at 11:00 A. M.