Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois)
church building in Illinois, United States of America
Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church is an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church located at 902 Broadway in Lincoln, Illinois. As a black church, Allen Chapel served as a center of Lincoln's small African-American community. The church hosted the community's religious and social events. As an AME church, it provided AME publications to and helped educate its members. As Lincoln was both segregated and predominantly white for much of the church's early history, the church played an important role as one of the few organizations dedicated to improving the lives of the city's black residents. The church is still used for religious services.
Architecture
Allen Chapel is a one-story, brick gable front building with a brick foundation. The church was built in 1880 to house Lincoln's African Methodist Episcopal congregation, which formed in 1868. The building has a vernacular design with Gothic arched windows and entrances. There was originally a stained glass window in the transom above the door, but was later replaced with lights with coated glass that resembles stained glass.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois)” is church building in Illinois, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Allen, Chapel and African, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “church building in Illinois, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14687373. Authority coordinates are 40.147, -89.359. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880 and 1868.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois) primary sources, Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois) archive and Allen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois)”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church (Lincoln, Illinois)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.