Photo by NCinDCYesterday the Washington Post wrote about a preservation effort for Maryland’s historic tobacco barns, which were named as among the 11 most endangered historic buildings in the nation back in 2004. That part you know already. For its 2010 list of America’s Most Endangered Places, the National Trust for Historic Preservation just named a building even closer to home: the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The spiritual home of Frederick Douglass needs some work — and deserves help. Beyond its significance to its immediate parishioners and to black culture, it’s a building that matters specifically to the history of the District. As the Post mentions, the Metropolitan AME is the oldest continuously black-owned site in the District. One of the churches that merged to form the Metropolitan AME served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Now the building is just falling apart.
