St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (Fayetteville, Tennessee)
church building in Tennessee, United States of America
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Fayetteville, Tennessee, United States, located at 521 W. College Street.
The congregation was established as the "African Church" in 1824, probably by white slave-owners wanting to provide a Christian church for their household servants. The original church location was on Rock and Stigall Hill (now Reservoir Hill), about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) northeast of the current church building.
The church moved to its present location on West College Street in 1867. The church's current brick building was completed in 1913. Oral histories indicate that the women of the church delivered brick to the site by carrying bricks in their aprons. When built, the church facade featured three large circular windows; after a fire damaged the building, the circular windows were replaced by rectangular double-hung windows.
The church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003 following research by Middle Tennessee State University.
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External links
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The public source identifies “St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (Fayetteville, Tennessee)” as church building in Tennessee, United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paul, African and Methodist.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (Fayetteville, Tennessee)”, the useful work is to connect “church building in Tennessee, United States of America” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7591220. Authority coordinates are 35.153, -86.578. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1867, 1913 and 2003.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. 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.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church (Fayetteville, Tennessee)” 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.