NEAR SOUTH SIDE — Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church has unshackled itself from the burden of debt.
Leaders of the 180-year-old Near South Side church, 2401 S. Wabash Ave., celebrated paying off the church’s $510,000 debt with a special mortgage burning ceremony earlier this month. Scores of members packed the pews for the event, said Pastor Troy K. Venning.
The church, a city landmark, now owns the building and two nearby lots outright.
“It was a full house,” Venning said of the celebration. “We had the Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, who is the president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., as our speaker. Not only did we burn the mortgage, but we also honored our Bishop John Franklin White and Supr. Penny Hartsfield White, who will be retiring at the General Conference in August. So we honored them with our two Archibald Carey Lifetime Achievement Awards.”
The celebration included renaming the fellowship hall for Venning’s predecessor Rev. James Moody and his wife, Corlis. Moody retired from his post in 2021.
Venning told Block Club the church’s new debt-free status paves the way for the expansion of their community event space and the creation of the Underground Railroad museum to be built in the church’s basement. The museum would serve as an onsite archive of the church’s history and contributions to the Underground Railroad, Venning told Block Club earlier this year.
The home of the Chicago’s oldest Black congregation is in the midst of a multi-million dollar restoration, with $5 million worth of work to go, Venning said. Last year, members were able to enjoy air-conditioned services for the first time in the building’s 131-year history.
The church’s plans will also put Chicagoans to work, expanding opportunities for majority-minority and female contractors and managers along with apprenticeships to add skilled laborers, Venning said.
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How Chicago’s Oldest Black Church Helped Freedom Seekers On The Underground Railroad
Not long after Quinn Chapel A.M.E formed, its members provided food, shelter and other resources to people trying to escape slavery from Chicago through Detroit and eventually to Canada.
Quinn Chapel has joined preservationists and historians in an effort to get the National Park Service to recognize the Chicago To Detroit Freedom Trail. It would recreate the Underground Railroad route along which Quinn Chapel, previously located in the Loop, and the historic Olivet Baptist Church in Douglas, served as stops for freedom seekers.
Approximately 3,000 to 4,500 freedom seekers came to and through the Chicago area prior to the Civil War and nearly all continued on toward Detroit and Canada, historian Larry McClellan told Block Club.
The church continues to draw Hollywood’s attention as well. Its Romanesque Revival design has been featured in exterior shots for television shows like NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and Hulu’s Emmy Award-winning dramedy “The Bear“, while crews have used some of the church’s spaces for makeup rooms and production, Venning said.
“The Bear taped several things right outside Quinn Chapel. We probably don’t get productive credit for it,” Venning said. “In the first season of ‘Power Book IV: Force,’ there was a shootout right in front of our building. If you look at ‘Southside With You,’ they were this filming at the church. We can go all the way back to Halle Berry in ‘Losing Isaiah.’ Scenes from that movie that were shot in the church. And Chicago Fire, I think, burns the church down as often as they can.”
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