St. James AME Church Cape Girardeau, Missouri
National Register of Historic Places Data
St. James AME Church has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the following information, which has been imported from the National Register database and/or the Nomination Form. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- National Register ID
- 13001085
- Date Listed
- January 15, 2014
- Name
- St. James A.M.E. Church
- Other Names
- St. James Chapel AME Church;St. James Chapel
- Part of
- N/A (Multiple Property Submission)
- Address
- 516 N. St.
- City/Town
- Cape Girardeau
- County
- Cape Girardeau
- State
- Missouri
- Category
- building
- Level of Sig.
- local
- Areas of Sig.
- BLACK; SOCIAL HISTORY
Description
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
St. James AME Church in Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri is locally significant under Criterion A, Ethnic Heritage-Black and Social History. Constructed in 1875 on Cape Girardeau's then northern city limit, St. James AME Church is one of two remaining urban African-American churches in Cape Girardeau constructed during the Reconstruction period and the only one to remain a continuously functioning church. In addition, it is one of the few extant African-American buildings constructed by the black community prior to desegregation in Cape Girardeau, and the only extant communal building in Cape Girardeau's Filbrun Subdivision, a former freedmen's community. St. James AME Church served as the social and spiritual center for Cape Girardeau and vicinity's African-American population . Like other African-American churches nationally, St. James AME Church became the most important institution for providing structure, leadership, and guidance to an African-American community facing a segregated and hostile Anglo-American society. As the only African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in the city, St. James AME Church provided refuge, opportunity, and an outlet for self-expression while supporting autonomy, education, and black cultural pride. With the largest communal single-room in the area, St. James AME Church was also able to support large functions including conferences and community events. Although the building has experienced some alterations, many in conjunction with St. James hosting the meetings of the annual Missouri Conference of the AME, they do not detract significantly from the integrity of the building and it appears much as it did after its 1926 renovation. The period of significance extends from 1875, the year of construction to 1963, the accepted fifty year closing date when activities begun historically continued to have importance and no more specific date can be defined to end the historic period.
