First Baptist Missionary Baptist Church , Clarksdale , Mississippi . Christopher S . Hunter
Friendship AME Church , Clarksdale , Mississippi . Christopher S . Hunter
Centennial Missionary Baptist Church , Clarksdale , Mississippi . Christopher S . Hunter and constructed in 1923 . The columns , portico , pediment , and symmetrical façade composition , highlighted by a tower located on axis with the entrance , suggest a visual language that , along with Gothic Revival , was very popular with the design of African American church design at the turn of the 20th century .
Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church , built in 1927 , also features a symmetrical façade , but lacks the formal element to classify it an example of a Greek Revival style . The presence , however , of the tower located on axis with the main entrance does serve to mark the main entrance , as well as highlight the symmetrical quality of the elements of the main façade .
These five churches are within blocks of one another , and their architectural character has similarities . They are all constructed with the bricks that were typical of urban African American church buildings . Each church has a centrally located entrance on the main façade of the building , with a series of steps ascending to the doors . Though the architectural style of each church is distinct , common elements remain , such as towers either centrally located or anchoring building corners , or both . The use of masonry on the buildings represented having reached a new level of stability and wealth to the congregations , as compared to rural church houses , generally constructed of wood .
Wallace Rayfield and the African American Architect
For pioneering Black architects in the early 20th century , church designs were central to their success . At this time African Americans mainly were being trained as architects at Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs ), with the primary schools for instruction being Tuskegee Institute , founded by Booker T . Washington , and Howard University . Those institutions ’ early architectural graduates designed schools , medical facilities , and residences , but mainly houses of worship for a growing middle class of African Americans . Wallace Rayfield , considered the first African American
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