Form No. 10-300

REV. (9/77)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORNATIONAL PARK SERVICENATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY- NOMINATION FORMSEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOWTOCOMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS
TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS[NAMEHISTORIC

Chestnut Street Baptist Church

AND/OR COMMON

Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church

LOCATION
STREET & NUMBER_NOT FOR PUBLICATION

912 W. Chestnut Street
Louisville

CITY. TOWN

VICINITY OFSTATECODEKentucky021

CODE111

CLASSIFICATIONCATEGORYOWNERSHIP—DISTRICT—PUBLIC

J&UILDINGIS)—STRUCTUREvv—AGRICULTURE—MUSEUM^PRIVATE—UNOCCUPIED—COMMERCIAL—PARK—BOTH—WORK IN PROGRESS—EDUCATIONAL—PRIVATE RESIDENCE

PUBLIC ACQUISITION—SITE—OBJECTPRESENT USE

STATUS—OCCUPIEDACCESSIBLE—ENTERTAINMENT XX_RELIGIOUS—IN PROCESS—YES: RESTRICTED—GOVERNMENT—SCIENTIFIC—BEING CONSIDERED—YES: UNRESTRICTED—INDUSTRIAL—TRANSPORTATION—NO—MILITARY—OTHER.

OWNER OF PROPERTY
NAME

Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church

STREET & NUMBER

912 W. Chestnut Street

C<TY,TOWN

KentuckyVICINITY OF

40205TATELOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION
COURTHOUSE,REGISTRY OF DEEDS,ETC.

Jefferson County Courthouse

STREET & NUMBER& Jefferson

CITY, TOWN

-i 1 1 o

TITLE

STATE

KentuckyKentucky Survey of Historic Sites

DATE—FEDERALDEPOSITORY FORSURVEY RECORDS
CITY, TOWN_:gSTATE—COUNTY—LOCAL

Kentucky Heritage Commission
Frankfort

Kentucky

STATE

DESCRIPTIONCONDITION^EXCELLENT—DETERIORATED_GOOD—RUINS—FAIR_UNEXPOSEDCHECK ONE

CHECK ONE—UNALTERED.^ORIGINAL SITE
—MOVEDDATE.

The Chestnut Street Baptist Church is located on the eastern edge of the Russell
neighborhood, just west of the central business district of Louisville. Thechurch is in an area which has suffered greatly from Urban Renewal clearence.
Chestnut Street Baptist Church is close to the Chestnut Street Methodist Church,South (National Register, July, 1979) and Union Station (National Register,August 1975).
The Chestnut Street Baptist Church is an ornate Gothic Revival structure. The
red brick church is richly ornamented with terra cotta. The facade of the structure
consists of a central gabled section with two towers. The main feature of thecentral section is a fine porch reminiscent of a medieval cloister. Short composite
columns which are banded rest on brick bases. Five pointed arches spring fromthe columns which have a terra cotta boss at each of their junctions. The area
above the arches is filled with small terra cotta squares. The main facade is
set behind this porch. Four geometrically styled stained-glass windows are
surmounted by four arched windows and a small rose window. The gable face isornamented by a decorative terra cotta sheathing.
The right tower is three stories in height and buttressed. The ground floor has
a narrow double door of wood with an arched transom of stained-glass and tracery.
The second story is pierced by a rose window. A corbel band articulates the top
story of blind pointed arches.
The left tower repeats the ground floor opening of the right tower. A highly
decorative chamfered section makes a transition between the ground floor andthe hexagonal upper tower. This hexagonal section is pierced by lowered arches
and capped with a steep roof.
The santuary is an open hall with no columns. The room is two stories in heightwith a flat ceiling. The ceiling has eighteen recessed panels which are decorated
by painted floral motifs. The lower walls are wainscotted in dark wood andpierced by large pointed arched stained-glass windows with vivid-coloredgeometric decoration.

PERIOD

AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW—PREHISTORIC_ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC—COMMUNITY PLANNING—LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE—1400-1499—ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC—CONSERVATION—LAW—SCIENCE—1500-1599—AGRICULTURE—ECONOMICS—LITERATURE—SCULPTURE—1600-1699—RELIGION—EDUCATION—MILITARY—SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN^700-1799_ART—^ENGINEERING—MUSIC—THEATER—1800-1899—COMMERCE—EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT—PHILOSOPHY—TRANSPORTATION—1900-—COMMUNICATIONS—INDUSTRY—POLITICS/GOVERNMENT—OTHER (SPECIFY);—INVENTIONSPECIFIC DATESc. 1884

BUILDER/ARCHITECTThe Chestnut Street Baptist/Quinn Chapel Church is a significant example of Gothic
Revival ecclesastical architecture in Louisville. It is also an important part ofthe history of one of the city's earliest and most important black congregations.

The Chestnut Street Baptist Church was built around 1884 and1 later known
as the Weaver Baptist Church. The church became the fifth home of the Quinn
Chapel A.M.E. congregation in 1910. The Quinn Chapel congregation is oneof the oldest black churches in the city and had its beginings in 1838 as
the Bethel congregation. The church takes its name from Bishop Paul Quinn,
an early black church leader and abolistionist and the first bishop of theAfrican Methodist Episcopal faith to visit Kentucky.

The congregation ofQuinn Chapel was comprised of free men who were active in the anti-slavery
movement and gained the church the title of the " Abolistionists' church".
The first school for black children in Louisville was started by the congregationin the late 1840's.
Henry Wolters, the architect of the church, was born in Hanover, Germany andeducated at the Berlin Polytechnic Institute and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. Wolters was one of the engineers of the Suez Canal before coming toAmerica in 1872.
Wolters had an office in both New Orleans and Louisville 0His work exemplified the exuberance of detailing associated with the Victorianstyle and the attention to compositional elements, the hallmark of Beaux-Artstraining. Wolters' work is found throughout the southern part of the UnitedStates. His work includes the design of fifty railroad depots for the Central
Georgia Railroad Company, the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, the Birmingham
and Montgomery, Alabama Railroad Depots, the Evansville Indiana Courthouseand the Memphis Cotton Exchange.
In Louisville his designs include the 1892
Kaufman-Straus Building (destroyed); Norton Hall of the Baptist TheologicalSeminary ( destroyed): the Tyler Block ( National Register, 1973, destroyed);
Kentucky Wagon Works ( destroyed); <,fche Knights of Phydias Building ( NationalRegister, November, 1978) and the Bamberger Bloom Building ( National Register,West Main Street District, March, 1974). The Chestnut Street Baptist Church
is the only extant ecclesasfclcal building in Louisville which can be assignedto Wolters.
The Chestnut Street Baptist Church is a richly detailed exampl^ of the Gothic
Revival style. The church is one of a very few historic structures left in alarge urban renewal area. The structure is exemplary of the exuberance indecorative detailing found in the work of the German-born architect, HenryWolters (1845-1921).

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Caron Directory of the City of Louisville.

Louisville: C.K. Caron, 1880-1900.

"Henry Wolters Dies; Famed as Architect," Louisville Courier Journal. 30 August 1921.
Inland Architect and News Record III. (July) 1884.
"Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church".Louisville: Quinn Chapel. 1978.

^GEOGRAPHICAL DATALess than one acre
ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY ____________QUADRANGLE NAMELouisville WCStUTM REFERENCES

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VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTIONCity of Louisville Block 13H, Lot 198
LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES
STATE

CODE

COUNTY

CODE

STATE

CODE

COUNTYCODE

FORM PREPARED BY
NAME/TITLE

Marty poynter Hedjgepeth

ORGANIZATION

Landmarks Commission

DATESTREETS, NUMBER

727 West Ma in Street

TELEPHONE

Director of Research502/587-3501

STATE

CITY OR TOWNLouisvilleKentucky

THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS:
NATIONAL__

STATE___

LOCAL VAs the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I
hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to thecriteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

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Chestnut Street Baptist Church912 W. Chestnut
Louisville, Jefferson, Ky.
Real Estate Atlas of Jefferson County
Vol. 1, Real Estate Directories , Inc.
1972. /Map 3