Star Hill AME Church

Star Hill AME Church

Starr Hill AME Church
Location 357 Voshell Mill-Star Hill Road, Camden, Delaware
Coordinates 39°6′6″N 75°32′10″W / 39.10167°N 75.53611°W / 39.10167; -75.53611Coordinates: 39°6′6″N 75°32′10″W / 39.10167°N 75.53611°W / 39.10167; -75.53611
Area 1.6 acres (0.65 ha)
Built c. 1866
Architectural style Vernacular Gothic Revival
NRHP Reference # 94001389[1]
Added to NRHP November 25, 1994

Star Hill AME Church, also known as Star of the East Church, is a historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church building and cemetery located in Dover, Delaware near Camden, Kent County, Delaware. It was constructed about 1866, and is a one-story, three-bay by three-bay, gable roofed, frame building in a vernacular Gothic Revival-style. It features a small bell tower at the roof ridge. Interments in the adjacent cemetery are believed to begin with the founding of the church in the 1860s, but the earliest marked grave dates from the early 1890s.

The church is an important focal point of the community of Star Hill, an early community of African American settlement in Kent County.[2]

Star Hill AME Church was founded in the 1860s and is a daughter church of nearby Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church.[3]

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.[1]

Historical marker at the church

Today the church is home to the Star Hill Museum, which features exhibits about African American history in Kent County, slavery and the Underground Railroad.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Building Freedom". Delaware Historical Society. Retrieved 2 October 2014. But very little is known about church involvement in actively helping freedom seekers. One church that has such a tradition is Star Hill A.M.E, in the Kent County African American community of Star Hill. Star of the East Church (which met in the building to the far left) was a safe place for freedom seekers and a site for anti-slavery meetings. Star Hill A.M.E. Church, founded in 1863 or 1866, was also a haven for escaping slaves.
  3. ↑ Robin K. Bodo (June 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Star Hill AME Church" (PDF). National Park Service. and Accompanying 15 photos
  4. ↑ "Star Hill Historical Society Museum". National Park Service. Retrieved 2 October 2014.


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