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CHURCHES

People have always felt a need for religious guidance. In primitive times superstition was interwoven with religion. On down thru the ages, the history of any settlement is closely allied with its religious practices and beliefs. Thus the development of the churches of Anacostia is a story of the hopes, aims, and struggles of its people.

Macedonia Baptist Church

The Macedonia Baptist Church was founded in the year 1866, at 2800 Sheridan Rd., S.E. Its congregation was very small with less than fifty members. 

One of the first churches in Anacostia, in its eighty-four years, has had many ministers. Some of them have been Rev. W.E. Porter in 1910, and Rev. W. Williams in 1916.
 
Several members of the congregation have served in the church for a long period. They are: Mrs. Maddie Howard, 1896; Miss Elizabeth Coleman, 1898; Mrs. Annie McPherson, 1910; Mrs. Elizabeth Gross, 1908; Mrs. Anabelle Harrod, 1910, and Mr. James Watston, 1910.
 
During the war, in the year 1943, the government bought the property to build Military Road Highway; then the congregation and minister held services in the Odd Fellow Hall in Anacostia. Services were held in the hall for five years, until the present building was built in 1948.
 
Macedonia is the mother church of two other churches in Anacostia-Bethlehem, Baptist and Matthews Memorial.
 
It has constantly faced the problem of raising funds to build a new beautiful church; today Macedonia is loated at 2625 Stanton Road and its congregation has grown to approximately one hundred members. 

Rev. Henry C. Coleman, who is its present minister, has served for twenty-seven years.
 
G.N. Murray
Interview with Rev H. C. Coleman and Mrs. G. Campbell, Church Clerk
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Campbell A.M.E Church

For many years, Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church, a unit of the Baltimore Conference, second Episcopal District, has been a landmark in this community and like a beacon light has guided many toward the more "abundant life."

About the year 1866 at the close of the Civil War, when strife and confusion were rampant everywhere, an organization was formed by a few devout followers of Christ for the mutual spiritual uplift of each other. This organization was known as Allen Chapel, Good Hope, D.C. Due to the greatly increased membership and the great traveling distance, many persons living in what was called "Howard Town" held their weekly prayer meetings at the home of Mr. John Robert Baddy. A public schoolhouse was utilized at first until a church building named Mt. Zion A.M.E Church could be erected. Rev. William G. Waters organized and was appointed the first pastor of this church, serving until 1870 when a frame building was erected under Rev. Daniel Draper's pastorage.
 
Because of the inaccessibility of this frame structure also, there were those who felt that a more central location would further the cause of Christianity. Mr. William Carter donated a plot of ground at Nichols Avenue and Sumner Rd., the site of the present edifice. This edifice soon became a landmark and an ornament in the Anacostia community. At the formal dedicatory exer-

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