St. Matthew Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

St. Matthew Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a Late Gothic Revival church building at 2944 N. 9th St. in Milwaukee, built in 1914-1915. It was designed by the firm of Leenhouts & Guthrie, whose partners were Cornelius Leenhouts and Hugh Wilson Guthrie, and Gustavus Leipold is also named as an architect.

Why it's listed

It was listed in 2019 under criterion A, with local-level significance in Black ethnic heritage and social history; its period of significance runs from 1964 to 1967, reflecting its use as headquarters of the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (MUSIC).

Physical character

The church is built of brick trimmed with limestone, on an 85-by-85-foot footprint under a front gable. A crenellated square tower with a conical-roofed belfry anchors it, with battlements, buttresses and a parapet wall elsewhere. Inside, a hammer-beam ceiling, stained glass windows and a pipe organ survive, and the building has a gymnasium and fireplace; some windows were boarded up by 2018.

Historical context

The First German Reformed congregation, incorporated in 1865, dedicated the church in 1915; St. Matthew's congregation bought the building in 1958. Freedom schools met there during the 1964 and 1965 school boycotts. In 1965 MUSIC also filed a school desegregation lawsuit while meeting at the church.