Year End with Quinn

This is a pew from the oldest black church in Chicago, Quinn Chapel AME Church, as it is displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture .  
Quinn Chapel was built in 1891 by African Americans for the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is the longest held property in Chicago by African Americans.  

This go fund me is a request to help us meet a two for one  matching grant.  Your dollar becomes three dollars!
This campaign will allow us to match the historic LiIy Foundation grant awarded to Quinn and others by Partners for Sacred Places and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  

Quinn is a local, state, and national landmark and was once one of America's 11 most endangered historic places recognized by the National Trust. 
Since 2006, the congregation has worked to save this historic site.  Over $2.2 million  has been raised and used to replace the roof, the kitchen, handicapped accessible ramp, dormer windows, restrooms, restored entry, fellowship hall and many other improvements. 

The sanctuary is where Frederick Douglas bought Susan B. Anthony to speak during the Columbian Exposition of 1893, because  the Chicago tribune reports, "Only a colored church named Quinn Chapel would allow her to speak."  

Along with the two of them, other  famous speakers from the historic pulpit include: Presidents Mckinley and Taft, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B.Dubois, George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr., Adam Clayton Powell, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.  Wynton Marsalis performed Mass, Patti Labelle performed Going Home to Gospel, and two movies produced by Harpo productions were shot here.

Today, Quinn is a thriving congregation providing community service and commitment to its vision of being Christ centered and others focused.  Quinn Chapel is  the building where the work of God happens through, men reading weekly to elementary school children, lives once controlled by drugs and alcohol are transformed, young people learn to worship and live in today's violent society, and adults work to change our community for the better. 
We are grateful for your contribution and hope you share this opportunity to save this treasure with your friends and family.   What we do  happens here!