Take a look at the two story red brick building with pointed arch windows and a distinctive circular stained glass window set high up in the central gable. You are standing in front of Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church, the oldest African American church structure in Alexandria.
Back in 1830, about two hundred and fifty free and enslaved Black Americans were attending Trinity Methodist Church. As was the custom then, they were restricted to sitting up in the gallery under the supervision of a white pastor. They wanted a space of their own, a place where they could speak with their own voice and train their own leaders. So, they pooled together two hundred dollars, which is around seven thousand dollars today, and bought some land.
Then came 1831, and Nat Turner led a massive rebellion against slavery down in southern Virginia. The pushback from white neighbors here in Alexandria was intense. Facing fierce opposition and very real safety concerns from the white residents living near their newly bought land, the congregation had to put their plans on ice.
But they absolutely refused to give up. By 1834, they purchased this property right here for three hundred and fifty dollars, roughly twelve thousand today. They strategically picked a spot sandwiched directly between two established Black neighborhoods.
If you check the screen on your device, you can see a great shot of the exterior. That ornate Gothic Revival facade was actually added during a massive remodel in 1894. But those side walls? Those are the original bricks laid back in 1834.
This building was a true anchor. Supported by fierce advocates like free Black business leader Moses Hepburn, and deeply dedicated women like Millie Triplett and Betsy Harris, the church ran one of the earliest schools for Black children and adults. They taught reading and writing at a time when Virginia laws strictly banned the education of African Americans.
Things got incredibly dark in 1846 when Alexandria was transferred from the relatively lenient District of Columbia back to Virginia jurisdiction, a move known as retrocession. Suddenly, brutal new restrictions came crashing down. A strict ten o'clock curfew was enforced, and gathering in groups of five or more without white supervision became completely illegal. The church school was forced to shut its doors. To make matters worse, the Methodist church split over the issue of slavery, and the man this chapel was originally named after, Reverend Davis, decided to side with the pro slavery southern faction.
So, the congregation simply erased his name. They renamed their sanctuary after Bishop Robert Richford Roberts, a beloved leader known for preaching to widely diverse crowds.
When Union troops arrived during the Civil War, those oppressive state laws finally vanished. The school reopened, the congregation flourished, and this very space eventually hosted towering historical figures like Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
Take a moment to just look at it. These original walls have absorbed nearly two centuries of sorrow, resilience, and soaring song, standing today not just as a sanctuary, but as a monument to freedom.
