Fort Wayne’s historic Turner Chapel AME Church is now on the list of National Register of Historic Places.
The building at 836 E. Jefferson Blvd. was built in 1927 by the Calvary United Brethren Congregation and purchased by the Turner Chapel AME Church in 1963.
Prior to taking over the building, Turner Chapel had been meeting in a church building on the corner of Webster and Washington streets, according to the church website.
The church has been important in the fight for civil rights in northeast Indiana, particularly during the fight over school desegregation in Fort Wayne Community Schools in the 1960s.
Turner Chapel was home to the Freedom School in 1969, one of six schools set up in area churches after it became clear Fort Wayne Community Schools had no plan to desegregate local schools. Area pastors set up the schools as a targeted boycott of a handful of FWCS elementary schools.
The Freedom School was the largest of the six, with 283 students, according to a press release from the City of Fort Wayne.
In its listing on the registry, the building is identified as a notable example of the Gothic Revival style with Tudor Revival influences and retains its original architectural integrity.
