BOSTON — The nation’s oldest existing Black church building, where the abolitionist movement gathered steam in the 19th century and where the first Black Civil War regiment had its roots, is nearing completion of a restoration project done with the help of $4 million in federal stimulus funds.
Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday toured the renovated African Meeting House, a three-story brick building constructed in 1806 in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and standing just blocks from the Massachusetts Statehouse.
The meeting house, a national historic landmark, is “an extraordinary piece of our Commonwealth’s history, the history of African-American people and the history of freedom in the western world,” said Patrick, the state’s first Black governor.
During his tour, the governor was shown examples of the painstaking detail that went into the project, including the restoration or replication of all original pews, wall finishes and cast-iron posts in the 1,500-square-foot building.
John Waite, whose Albany, N.Y.-based architectural firm specializes in historical preservation, said paint chips were examined through a high-powered microscope and chemically analyzed in an effort to determine the color of the original paint on the walls so it could be duplicated in the restoration.
The site is scheduled to reopen to the public Dec. 6, the 205th anniversary of the founding of the meeting house, said Beverly Morgan-Welch, executive director of the Museum of African American History.
“The meeting house was used, of course, as a place of worship, but also as a place of school, for lectures, for music, opera even,” Welch said. “But, most importantly, to gather around the discussions to bring slavery to an end in this nation.”
