Windows are boarded, bricks are falling off the walls, and blue tarp covers the roof of the oldest African-American church in Syracuse.

The church has been vacated since the People’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion congregation left it in 1975.

As landmarks surrounding the church disappeared, community members expressed concern the church would follow the same fate.

Across town, at Howlett Hill Presbyterian Church in Onondaga, the 189-year-old church has closed its doors despite its good condition. The small, white chapel with red doors is clean and well maintained.

Although both historically significant to their respective communities, only one of these churches has been given the opportunity to regain its status as a hub of social and cultural importance, thanks to the help of Syracuse University and the work of SU librarian Angela Williams. As churches close and consolidate around upstate New York, some are made into history and others are left behind.

Preserving history

The People’s AME Zion Church was organized by two individuals who escaped slavery. It was first organized in 1835 by the Rev. Thomas James but was officially organized in 1842, said Judy Wellman, director of the Historical New York Research Associates and a coordinator of the project. The church became the largest African-American congregation in Syracuse and an important aspect of the community.

A $6,000 grant was presented to the Preservation Association of Central New York by the Preservation League of New York State and could help preserve and restore the 100-year-old AME Zion Church located at 711 E. Fayette St. SU has also helped by donating funds to preserve the building for the winter.

Jermain Loguen, an abolitionist who escaped slavery in Tennessee and came to Syracuse, was the pastor of the church from 1841 to 1844, Wellman said.

As African-Americans made efforts to escape slavery in the 1800s, Syracuse became an important station for the Underground Railroad that ran from the south to Canada, according to the digital archives from E.S. Bird Library.

Loguen and his wife became important advocates of abolitionism and kept an Underground Railroad station at their home to help others escape, Wellman said. He was known as the king of the Underground Railroad.

‘His spirit of activism kept the church in forefront of activity within the African-American community,’ said Williams, the librarian at SU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library who is coordinating the project.

Loguen was also an advocate for civic activism and charity, she said. And the church has continued those efforts through present day as a place of worship for other congregations.

‘It’s a testament to Rev. Loguen’s strength and perseverance, as well as the congregation of People’s AME,’ she said.

Restoration of the church will begin after the Preservation Association further researches the history of the church and its congregation. The AME Zion Church was given the grant Nov. 16, which will fund the initial phase of a historic structure report project and will go toward the research of African Methodist Episcopal churches throughout New York state.

Researchers, including Williams, have been interviewing residents connected with the church and its history and comparing that information with other records on the church.

The research is the first step in identifying the building as a historical structure and gives it a spot on the National Register of Historical Places, Wellman said.

A member of the community approached Wellman five to six years ago about her concerns that the People’s AME Zion Church building was getting older and about its importance as a landmark in the African-American community. Wellman then contacted Williams about the concern, Williams said.

‘Initially, the church itself was trying to determine if they could somehow pull together resources to be able to restore it themselves,’ Williams said.

Before the Preservation Association received the grant, the congregation made an effort to keep the structure alive without funding, she said. The Rev. Daren Jaime of the People’s AME Zion Church was a strong advocate for the restoration of the church and congregation, Williams said.

Since its construction, the church became a symbol to both African-American and Syracuse communities, Williams said. And Wellman agrees.

‘It really symbolizes the African-American community and its vibrancy in Syracuse since its earliest time in Syracuse,’ Wellman said. ‘And it was such an important community-wide center.’

The church became home to congregations that were just beginning to organize, Williams said. It also had an important role during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s and served as an organizing center for civil rights marchers, Wellman said.

Williams said keeping the church’s historical integrity is an inspiration to younger generations.

The People’s AME Zion Church used the church on East Fayette from about 1910 to 1975, Williams said. The congregation, which has 555 members, now meets at a church on South Salina Street. It is too large to meet at the original church, Wellman said.

Once the building is restored, it will potentially become a multiuse community center, both coordinators said.

Left behind

But there are no plans to reopen the former Presbyterian church Howlett Hill. Instead, its current owner, the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse, intends to sell the building.

The Presbytery hopes to sell the property to another church, but there is no guarantee the church will be used for religious purposes again, said Donna Chapman, the former worship leader of the church. There have already been two inquiries for the building, both from religious groups, Chapman said.

It is marked as a historical building by the town of Onondaga, but there are no plans to seek protective status of Howlett Hill, said Jane Tracy, Onondaga town historian.

Almost 200 years old, the church building has housed a variety of congregations, according to Town of Onondaga records. In 1804, a Baptist congregation of six men and seven women formed in the area and went on to erect the building in 1821.

Leonard Caton, who was not a member of the congregation, donated the land from across the street from where he lived to build the church, according to the records. In his deed, Caton asked that the land always be used for a church or it would revert to his heirs. The stipulation is not uncommon for the time, Tracy said, but without any heir apparent in the area, the law may not be enforced.

In 1848, the Baptist congregation moved to Camillus. For the three years afterward, Episcopalians used the church. It was re-deeded for Universalists in 1852, but it was not used for years. In 1942, community members reopened it as the Howlett Hill Community Church, which was officially named a Presbyterian church 10 years later.

Since then, a basement, balcony, kitchen and addition for dining and meeting use were added to the church, and pews were replaced. A new bell tower was put in place in 1971.

The congregation at Howlett Hill voted to close the church at the beginning of the year because it was too expensive to keep running, Chapman said.

Church budgets were down 7 percent from a year ago, according to a 2010 study by The Barna Group, a Christian-based research firm in California. Smaller churches, such as Howlett Hill, were especially affected and lost 16 percent of their budgets, according to the report.

Another reason the church closed was due to a lack of new membership and an aging congregation. In 1943, the church swelled to 190 members, according to records. But most recently, the congregation had about 26 members total, and only about half were able to attend services due to health, Chapman said.

‘We do know (church attendance) has diminished over the last decade,’ said James Wiggins, the retired executive director of InterFaith Works of Central New York. ‘One of the consequences of that is the closing of the parishes. There simply aren’t enough people attending.’

Though the future of Howlett Hill remains uncertain, Wiggins said he does not believe that closing churches is necessarily bad.

‘When all of your energy has to go in to keep the doors open,’ he said, ‘it’s a real question if you’re able to be of service to the larger community.’

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Published on December 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm