Asbury United Methodist Church
*The founding of Asbury United Methodist Church is celebrated on this date in 1836. Asbury Chapel is the oldest black United Methodist church in Washington, D.C.
The church pioneered Black Methodism in Washington, D.C., and of social history through Slavery, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and the American Civil Rights movement. It is the city's oldest Black church to remain on its original site. A new building on the same site was completed in 1870. The current building was designed by Clarence Lowell Handing and built in 1915–1916. In the 1920s, the building was refurbished by African American architect William Wilson Cooke.
It was located on the corner of 11th and K Streets Northwest and placed on the District of Columbia Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1986. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. In 2003, the National Park Service approved the listing of Asbury on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
In December 2020, the congregation's Black Lives Matter banner was burned during an event for President Donald Trump, an action the congregation's senior pastor described as "reminiscent of cross burnings." In January 2021, Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys, was arrested for the incident. On July 15, 2021, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Asbury United Church as one of 40 sites and organizations to receive $3 million in grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The grant is to be used for repairs to the church's wood windows and bell tower masonry and repointing and cleaning its stone facade.
