Mother Bethel AME Church

CTL-E-1493 · Church · ame · 1790s-contemporary

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Historic AME congregation in Philadelphia founded by Richard Allen in 1794; mother church of the AME denomination.

The record

Also known as: Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Relationships

Mother Bethel AME Church Records — archived at
Records of Mother Bethel AME Church are held in the Mother Bethel AME Church Records archive.
Presbyterian Historical Society — archived at
Mother Bethel AME Church's archives were moved to the Presbyterian Historical Society in 2013; PHS completed digitizing them in 2021.

Referenced by

1817 Philadelphia Anti-Colonization Meeting — held at → this record
Richard Allen — affiliated with → this record

Sources

CultureTechLens batch RELP1 research

Record CTL-E-1493 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 1 source · 4 mapped relationships · CTL research: RELP-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite this record

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Mother Bethel AME Church (CTL-E-1493),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1493/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Mother Bethel AME Church (CTL-E-1493).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1493/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Mother Bethel AME Church (CTL-E-1493) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1493/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Mother Bethel AME Church (CTL-E-1493).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-1493/

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The sanctuaries and sacred ground this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

A converted-storefront church with cars of the congregation, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Crowd outside of fashionable Negro church after Easter Sunday service, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.