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[ St. Peter's Episcopal Church ]
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[ St. Peter's Episcopal Church ]
Since crossing Tryon Street you have been in First Ward. Unlike Fourth
Ward, which was totally white in the nineteenth century, First Ward was
racially mixed. Part of the reason was that First Ward had a railroad
track running through it, and white folks did not like living next to
railroad tracks. College Street is named for the Presbyterian College
for Women, which was located about two blocks north until it moved to
Myers Park in 1914 and changed its name to Queens College.
First United Presbyterian Church, known as Seventh Street Presbyterian Church until it merged with Brooklyn Presbyterian Church in 1968, has a rich and illustrious history. The current church building was constructed in the 1890's, but there has been a black Presbyterian church on this site since the mid-1870's. Stephen Mattoon, a white missionary and president of Biddle Institute, now Johnson C. Smith University, was its minister in the 1880's.
In the years immediately following the Civil War, the African American people of Charlotte struggled to establish a new identity for themselves. Encountering scorn and ridicule from the majority of whites, many of the former slaves lacked the training and education to compete with whites for power and status. Consequently, blacks began creating their own institutions where they could develop and practice the skills needed to survive. Especially important in this regard were black churches. African Americans associated membership in the white man's church with the days of slavery and therefore had no desire to continue worshipping there. This was true of those blacks who belonged to First Presbyterian Church on West Trade Street, which you've already visited on this tour. Mrs. Kathleen Hayes summoned the black members to "come down out of the gallery and worship God on the main floor."
Established in 1866, the congregation initially called itself the Colored Presbyterian Church of Charlotte and was located in nearby Second Ward. Samuel C. Alexander, a white minister, bought the original lot for the church.
Return to Tryon Street by retracing your route along East Seventh Street and take a left. Notice the dark brick church immediately across Tryon Street, St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
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