Restoration of Black church in Parkville inspires rainbow coalition

Back in the 1870s in Parkville, Missouri, formerly enslaved men began to shape stones from a quarry. Eventually, they would be used to build a new Black church building there.

It took lots of time, but in 1907, the Washington Chapel (C.M.E. — Christian Methodist Episcopal) Church was completed, and on June 29 of that year it opened in this former “sundown town” north of the Missouri River. For the next 100-plus years, it served members of Parkville’s small Black community.

In its early years, it was a holy oasis for people of color in a town that had little use for such folks. And the church held together, physically and spiritually, for a long time.

Church member Pearl Stanley explains the later decline of the building and the congregation this way: “What happened to the chapel was that more and more people were moving out of Parkville, especially Black people. We were migrating to where there were jobs and less friction about living.”

Friction? Well, Blacks back then were second-class citizens at best in Parkville. For instance, as Pearl tells it, “there were no sidewalks in the Black part of Parkville. The street (where the church is at 1137 West St.) wasn’t even paved until the 1960s.”

So, the physical structures of the church deteriorated until, finally, members faced the choice of either doing major repairs or closing it. And closing it was the recommendation by ordained denominational leaders. But Pearl, her sisters Cora Thompson and Lucille Douglass, along with others, began to look for repair and restoration money.

After tons of work by lots of volunteers to protect the decaying interior of the building, in January 2024, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund awarded the chapel a $160,000 grant. Add to that more than $80,000 collected from Parkville residents, including many whites, and today the church is back in shape and ready for the next century.

Indeed, almost exactly 149 years after Washington Chapel’s founding, the small congregation plans a grand reopening at 1 p.m. June 27 — with rebuilt plumbing, three handicap-accessible restrooms, a redone kitchen and more.

And despite the long history of what Pearl gently calls “friction about living” that Blacks encountered in Parkville, she and her sisters are grateful for the way so many in Parkville beyond the congregation’s members have supported — financially and otherwise — the chapel’s restoration.

The Rev. Nicky Wright, who now pastors both Washington Chapel in Parkville and St. James C.M.E. Church in Leavenworth, praises all who helped turn this restorative dream into reality this way: “Being part of the C.M.E., we are a connectional church. So we are always looking out for one another. We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.”

When the Washington Chapel pastor left, Wright spoke to the C.M.E. presiding bishop for this area and got assigned to lead both congregations.

Although “they were looking at closing the church down, evidently God still has work for us to do in our community and he allowed all these people to be a blessing to that church,” Wright said.

There were painters, electricians, plumbers and more who volunteered time or were paid with money from the restoration grant, plus the additional locally raised money.

“Over and over again we saw how people came to Washington Chapel from so many walks of life and skill sets,” Wright said. “God truly blesses us. If we think about our nation right now and how divided it is, it just warms my heart that so many people no matter the color of their skin or different upbringings and backgrounds have been able to come together. I envision it just like what heaven will be like.”

And among many others, Pearl, Cora and Lucille are anxious to see what the future brings.

Those three sisters were children in what they called “interfaith marriage.” Their father was a member of a Black Baptist church while their mother was part of the Washington chapel congregation.

As Cora puts it, “Church was our social life in this legally segregated community.”

But time, she acknowledges, was taking its toll on Washington Chapel: “As more and more members moved out of Parkville it became more and more difficult. And not only did people move out but people were dying.”

Twice, she says, C.M.E. leaders recommended closing the chapel, but twice the congregation voted that idea down.

Instead, they did the best they could to maintain the utilities in the building and keep the place from deteriorating beyond hope of repair. But then the Covid pandemic hit, “and that stopped almost everything we were trying to do,” says Pearl.

Almost, but not quite. A small group of members continued to gather on Sundays — so few, the sisters say, that, as Lucille put it, “it was very easy to social distance.”

Eventually, a white woman from the Pacific northwest moved to Parkville and wanted to teach her grandchildren about racial harmony. The woman was a grant writer.

“Who sets that up but God?” Cora asks.

So with her help, the church was one of more than 500 organizations that applied for a 2024 grant from the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

And it was one of 31 selected. Thus, the $160,000 Godsend.

So this Saturday, the Parkville hill on which Washington Chapel sits will be hopping as Parkville residents join the congregation’s reopening celebration. You might think of it as one important way to begin to repair the community’s own racial history.

Bill Tammeus, an award-winning columnist formerly with The Kansas City Star, writes the “Faith Matters” blog (https://substack.com/@billtammeus429970) for The Star’s website. His latest book is Love, Loss and Endurance: A 9/11 Story of Resilience and Hope in an Age of Anxiety. Email him at wtammeus@gmail.com