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Black Hamilton • Faith • Community • Continuity

Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church

Hamilton's African Methodist Episcopal congregation has worshiped in more than one building, but it is one continuing church community. Its story begins with Black Methodist families forming an independent congregation in the early 1840s and continues today on South Front Street.

Organized c. 1840-1842Historic Water Street AreaCurrent Home: South Front Street
Places›Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church
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Congregational continuity

Different buildings. The same congregation.

For this project, Payne Chapel is not treated as a later church that replaced an unrelated antebellum congregation. Historical records trace the same Hamilton A.M.E. community across changing houses of worship. The congregation first organized in a private home, built an early sanctuary in the 1840s, completed a larger Payne Chapel in 1877, and later relocated to South Front Street after the City of Hamilton acquired and demolished the older church property.

Then and now

One congregation across changing buildings

Historic black-and-white photograph of Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church at Pershing Avenue and South Monument Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio
Historic Payne Chapel, 1868-1953
Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church at Pershing Avenue and South Monument Avenue. Photo from Greater Hamilton, Republican News, 1909.
Current Payne Chapel A.M.E. Church building on South Front Street in Hamilton, Ohio
Payne Chapel today
The congregation's current South Front Street home. Current photograph, 2026.

These are different buildings in the history of the same Hamilton A.M.E. congregation.

Origins

Black Hamiltonians establish an independent congregation

Late nineteenth-century histories describe Black Methodist families worshiping with Hamilton's white Methodist congregation before organizing their own church. One account explains that racial prejudice restricted Black worshipers to seats near the door or in the gallery. They subsequently organized an independent African Methodist Episcopal congregation, creating a religious and community institution under Black leadership.

The 1891 Hamilton Centennial history dates the organization to 1840 in the home of Matilda Taylor, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas Lawrence of Cincinnati, with nineteen members. It identifies the names Anderson, Sampson, Jones, and Yancy among the early families. The congregation soon secured a lot and erected its first church building, dedicated in 1842.

Dating note: Hamilton sources do not use exactly the same founding date. The 1891 Centennial history gives 1840, while the 1882 county history and the memorial placed in the later chapel use 1842. This site preserves that difference rather than forcing the evidence into a single date.
The nineteenth-century church

From the first sanctuary to Payne Chapel

The first house of worship was small, but the congregation grew. Construction of a larger chapel began in 1868 under Rev. A. H. A. Jackson and was completed in 1877 under Rev. Philip Tolliver Jr. The 1882 county history describes a brick church seating about 300 people.

A memorial inside that 1877 building named Alfred J. Anderson and Ira A. Collins on the building committee, along with trustees and church workers who helped complete the new sanctuary. By the late nineteenth century, city directories explicitly identified the congregation as the African Methodist Episcopal (Payne) Church.

Historic location: The later nineteenth-century Payne Chapel stood at what is identified in local historical material as Pershing Avenue and South Monument Avenue. An 1883-1884 Hamilton directory describes the church at the northwest corner of Ludlow and Water streets. Because Hamilton's riverfront street names and alignments changed over time, the project preserves both historical descriptions while the exact parcel history is reconciled.
1857

A confrontation inside the A.M.E. church

A later Hamilton account records federal officers entering an African Methodist service in 1857 during the era of federal Fugitive Slave Act enforcement. The incident created a dangerous confrontation within a sacred community space. Alfred J. Anderson was later credited with helping prevent the situation from becoming violent.

This episode matters to Hamilton's Underground Railroad history, but it does not define Payne Chapel. The church's importance is broader: it was an institution created and sustained by Hamilton's Black community for worship, mutual support, civic life, education, leadership, and collective action.

Evidence caution: The 1857 incident is preserved in later local-history accounts. The project's identification of John C. Elliott across the 1854 courthouse case and the 1857 church episode remains provisional and is not required to establish Payne Chapel's history or Anderson's relationship to the congregation.
Continuity into the twentieth century

From the riverfront to South Front Street

The congregation remained at its nineteenth-century location well beyond the Underground Railroad era. Local historical research reports that the City of Hamilton purchased the old church property and demolished the building in 1953, with the site becoming municipal parking.

Payne Chapel did not end with the loss of that building. In 1956, the congregation purchased the former Grace Methodist Church on South Front Street. The present Payne Chapel complex grew from that move, and a new sanctuary was constructed adjacent to the earlier structure in 1997.

The building changed. The congregation continued.

Continuity timeline

One congregation across generations

18401891 history dates organization in Matilda Taylor's home to this year.
1842First church building dedicated; other histories use 1842 as the formal organization date.
1857Federal enforcement confrontation later remembered at the African Methodist church; Alfred J. Anderson helps calm the crisis.
1868Work begins on a larger house of worship.
1877New Payne Chapel completed; Alfred J. Anderson named on the building committee.
1880Hamilton congregation separates from its shared pastoral arrangement with Oxford.
1953City acquires and razes the older church property; site becomes municipal parking.
1956Payne Chapel purchases a South Front Street church property.
1997Current sanctuary constructed adjacent to the earlier South Front Street structure.
TodayPayne Chapel continues its ministry in Hamilton.
Sources used for this page

Historical foundation

Hamilton Centennial Anniversary history, 1891/1892Organization in Matilda Taylor's home, early membership, first sanctuary, circuit history, and late nineteenth-century congregation.
A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, 1882Early Black Methodist families, segregation context, first sanctuary, 1877 chapel, memorial inscription, and Alfred J. Anderson's building committee role.
Williams' Hamilton Directory, 1883-1884Identifies the African Methodist Episcopal (Payne) Church at Ludlow and Water streets.
Stephen D. Cone, Biographical and Historical Sketches, 1896Retrospective local-history evidence for federal fugitive-slave enforcement and related Hamilton events.
Brad Spurlock / Lane Libraries local-history research, 2025Modern synthesis of congregational continuity, the 1953 city acquisition and demolition, the 1956 South Front Street move, and the 1997 sanctuary.
Interpretive principle: Payne Chapel is presented first as a Black religious and community institution with its own history and agency. Its Underground Railroad significance is explained through documented people, events, and geography without reducing the congregation to a single 1857 confrontation.