by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As we continue our look at the two-year pastorate of the Rev. Jordan Allen at the First African Methodist Episcopal church, known typically as FAME, in Los Angels from 1887 to 1889, we turn next to what was easily the most important part of his tenure: the construction of a new church building. There were many challenges that the small African-American community in the Angel City confronted with its church, of which there was an edifice at the northwest corner of Grand Avenue and 4th Street. This, however, was sold to Judge Anson Brunson in 1885, who built a large home adjacent to it and then transferred the lot to Lucy Gillmore.
As noted in part two, the AME congregation ended up meeting at 31 San Pedro Street in the residence of Granville Huddleston and his wife Ellen Mason Owens, daughter of church benefactor Biddy Mason and widow of Henry Owens, whose parents Robert and Winnie were among the earliest of the city’s Black residents along with Mason. When Allen came from Sacramento to assume the pastorate here, he lived in the house as well as conducted services there.
The 29 May 1888 edition of the Los Angeles Tribune reported on “A Good Move” in that it reported on an organizational meeting of the California Land, Loan and Building Association at the Huddleston/AME Church house. Among the directors elected at that gathering was Allen, while its legal counsel was R.C.O. Benjamin, of whom we will feature in the next post in this “Black Pioneers of Los Angeles County” series.
The account observed that capital stock was fixed at $1 million, of which a little more than $10,000 was subscribed, with incorporation papers expected to be submitted to the California Secretary of State after a second meeting the following week. It was then noted that the Association was to “lend money to its stockholders in order to aid them in the matter of securing homes of their own” and the Tribune adjudged this “a move that is very commendable on the part of the men making it,” though nothing was specified as to the race of the founders.
It may be that the Association, of which nothing else could otherwise be located, had a hand in the next steps relating to the church, but the 7 July edition of the Tribune contained a notice from the AME Trustees, which included the Association’s President, Charles W.H. Nelson (later an A.M.E. minister), and director Joseph Taylor, along with Robert C. Owens, Coleman M. Baker and A.M. Taylor, and from Pastor Allen. The notice was for:
Sealed bids for the moving of a one-story house, on Old Second street, 40 feet to the back of the lot; also for a brick foundation, 42×65, 2 feet high, 16 inches at bottom, 12 inches at top, with center wall 12 inches wide.
In that issue was another “Notice to the Public” in which 20 members were “under authority to solicit money in the name of the African Methodist Church. This included Allen and his wife Louisa, the trustees and Biddy Mason.
The Los Angeles Herald of 14 August, among the listing of the recording of deeds in the city, which was at the end of the great Boom of the Eighties, included one from Daniel F. and Helen Donegan, residents in the city for a half-dozen years with Daniel a successful street contractor during the boom, selling lots 7 and 8 in the Orange Tract to Pastor Allen for $7,000.
The Orange Tract was established by Alexis C. Jeffries, who migrated from Ohio with his family in early 1882 and bought the property from a real estate firm a year later. Jeffries’ son, James, became famous as a heavyweight champion boxer and for losing a post-retirement bout against the Black champion Jack Johnson.
It is unclear why the transaction was to him, rather than the trustees, as was the case in the past, but the 23 August issue of the Los Angeles Times reported that “the A.M.E. Church of this city, Jordan Allen, pastor, has the foundation of a new church completed, and is now ready to commence the erection of the building thereon.” The paper ended with the remark that “these people are working hard in this enterprise, and appeal to good citizens for donations of material, such as lumber and hardware.” Eight days later, the Tribune mentioned that Allen and the trustees “have invited Governor [Robert] Waterman to donate the cost of a stained glass front window to the new edifice,” though it is not known if there was a response.
A month later, the Times of the 23rd observed that “the corner-stone of the A.M.E. Church, on the corner of Old Second and San Pedro streets” was to be laid the following week.” Old Second, so named because a new route for Second Street, from Main Street eastward to the Los Angeles River was recently established, was soon renamed Azusa Street.
Other ministers from white churches were to participate and it was added that “there is still a portion of the money needed for the building to be raised yet, and any contributions can be sent to the pastor, Rev. Jordan Allen, at his residence, No. 87 Second street.” It appears that the existing structure moved to the rear of the lot became the minister’s parsonage.
Greater detail was provided by the Los Angeles Express of the following day and added that the various congregations in the city were encouraged by Allen to “help a poor struggling people who now have no place of worship.” More notable was the further comments he made:
We are working hard to get our church up to hold the conference on Oct. 25. We have the foundation ready and part of the lumber on the ground and framed. but were compelled to stop because we had not the means to go further. We are depending on what the good citizens may give us on that day to enable us to get into our church. The State of California has thrown open her doors to us, bidding us come as laborers and servants, and knowing we are two and a half centuries behind in wealth, our friends certainly would not refuse to lend us a helping hand in this much needed enterprise. So let all lovers of religion and morals be in attendance on this occasion. We are not only asking others to help us, but we are trying to help ourselves . . . are giving to the limits of our ability, and certainly need the help of others.
The 22 October issue of the Tribune commented that “the African Methodist Episcopal Church on Old Second street was dedicated yesterday” with Allen giving the sermon and helped by Rev. H.R. Stevens. A mid-afternoon service was followed by one in the evening and other ministers in the city took part. The paper concluded that “the building when completed will cost $2000” and that “it is the first African Church building in this city and one that will be highly appreciated by the colored people.”
A few days later, the California Conference of the A.M.E. Church was initiated “in the new church of that denomination” with some sixteen ministers statewide in attendance and presided over Ninth District head, Bishop Abraham Grant of San Antonio. During the confab, Allen was reappointed for a second year as pastor. Yet, when Grant lectured at the edifice on the 30th with the topic of “The Past, Present and Future of the Negro Race,” the following day’s Tribune observed that no white ministers visited the church since the conference began and “this fact induced [Grant] to make some comparisons in his lecture not at all flattering to Los Angeles.”
Once the conference concluded, however, a reception was tendered to the bishop by Coleman and Emma Baker with some attending from Pasadena, where there was a small, but vibrant African-American community. On behalf of the congregation, Allen presented Grant “with a fine gavel of orange wood, bound with gold rings, and with the handle covered in crimson plush” while a larger gavel was added “to rule the rough element with.”
The Times of 4 November noted that “Mr. Allen made an eloquent speech” which was followed by the bishop’s thanks and “altogether, it was a very pleasant affair.” Grant headed home to San Antonio after a sermon in the new church that evening, but returned in July 1889 as he headed north to the Bay Area.
As 1888 came to a close, it was decided to rename and incorporate the church the “Stevens African Methodist Episcopal Church,” with Nelson, Baker and A.M. Taylor joined as trustees by Allen Smith and C.J. Clarkson, and this name remained for close to two decades. With the dawn of 1889, however, the financial realities of the bust that followed the boom became manifest as the Times of 24 March reported that “the A.M.E. Church will have an important meeting today” as “an attempt will be made to raise $500 to pay the lumber debt of the church.”
The Tribune of 17 July briefly noted the 20th anniversary of Allen and his wife, following this four days later with an interesting report that the pastor joined Bishop Grant, Rev. Tilghman Brown of the A.M.E. Zion Church, R.C.O. Benjamin and John J. Neimore, who went on to have an important journalistic career including being the first publisher of the long-standing California Eagle, in visiting Governor Waterman, who was in town at the Hotel Nadeau, where Brown stated that “the colored people of Southern California desire to organize a military company.”
Waterman indicated that he was in favor of the idea, though it appears it did not develop, while the chief executive “spoke in high terms of the colored people of California, saying they were exceptionally good citizens and were welcome.” Grant was escorted by the locals to the paper’s office and it was remarked that “he looks with great favor upon the emigration of the negroes to California” while “it is his opinion that many more of the most enterprising colored men in the South will seek homes here.” This was a view not previously shared by Allen, as noted in part two.
When we cover some of the life and career of Benjamin, we’ll touch upon some conflict with Allen and other African-American men in Los Angeles, and another concerned efforts for a consulship for the island of Antigua, part of the British empire and now the nation of Antigua and Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles. Benjamin was nominated as a candidate for the position, but was also roundly criticized, as we’ll see, so Allen was, in July 1889, put forward as an alternative.
The last reference, however, to Allen in the Angel City came in the Times of 14 August, which reported that he was appointed as one of eleven ministers to a general arrangements committee for a convention at the end of the month “to be held in the interests of Sunday [religious] observance.” By October, he was in San Francisco, where he attended a charity event. The Black-owned Western News stated, in its 16 November issue, that Allen was in Springfield, a city in the southwestern portion of Missouri and attending to property interests—this seems a likely indicator of his birthplace.
Allen was back in San Francisco by summer 1890, but Daniel Donegan filed suit against him early in the year concerning unpaid mortgage and promissory notes concerning the A.M.E. Church property and, soon secured a judgment, though collecting was almost certainly elusive. Notably, however, Donegan, as the year came to a close, deeded the property to the Church’s trustees. Stevens First African Methodist Episcopal Church remained at the Azusa and San Pedro streets location for over a decade before moving to 8th Street and Towne Avenue, its longtime home.
In August 1891, Allen returned to Kansas, though he spent part of the Nineties in Butte, Montana and, in the first years of the 20th century, he held a pastorate in Denver. As the opening decade came to a close, however, he was back in Kansas, including serving the Church in Chanute, east of Wichita, before returning to the Kansas City area, where he served as a trustee for Western University, a Historically Black College founded in Quindaro in 1865, was well recognized for its music program and closed in 1943. Married twice more, apparently after his first wife died, Allen, after retiring from active ministry for the A.M.E. Church, worked for a time in a packing house, but he could occasionally be traced giving sermons in his later years.
The Kansas City Advocate of 22 July 1921, for example, reported that, at a First A.M.E. evening service, “Rev Jordan Allen, one of the pioneer ministers of the west, but superannuated [meaning not active due to age or illness], preached as of old” and “it was a great discourse and his hearers wonderfully enjoyed it.” Three years later, in October 1924, the paper remarked that “one of the old heroes of the west . . . delivered two excellent sermons, which were greatly enjoyed by his hearers.” That month, the Advocate commented that Allen was “one of the greatest pioneer preachers of the West” and that “everybody loves to hear this old father of gospel trumpeters.”
The 18 October 1928 issue of the Kansas City American covered an “Annual Old Folks’ Day” at the church and it was noted that “the regular afternoon service was conducted by Rev. Jordan Allen, 84 year old minister.” The Kansas City Call of 5 August 1932 reported on the minster’s death on 25 July with the headline of “The Rev. J. Allen, Builders of Churches, Character, Dead” and offered that “no flow of words will be adequate to pay tribute to . . . the pioneer missionary worker and church builder.”
The paper added that Allen was the only survivor of the first Kansas Conference when organized 56 years prior and it added “much of his time was spent traveling throughout the middle west doing missionary work, bolstering up weak churches and aiding financially schools and organizations of his denomination.” He was also credited as “largely responsible in the acquisition of Western university” and “sought funds for the institution and aided the surveyors in marking off the school grounds.”
Moreover, the obituary remarked that “Douglass hospital,” the first Black institution west of the Mississippi River and opened in 1898, “is much indebted to Rev. Allen” as “in 1917 when payments on the property became due and the place seemed doomed to fall into other hands, Rev. Allen solicited $1,500 to apply to the indebtedness.” He was lionized as a mentor to young African-American men and the paper commented “it seemed to be his hobby to help younger people” including through Western University.
After noting that “it is unlikely that no one will ever know the many fine deeds of Rev. Allen,” the Call added,
The erection of First A.M.E. Church, Eighth street and Towne avenue [of course, it was its predecessor at San Pedro and Azusa], Los Angeles, is due to the organizing ability of this churchman. Throughout the middle west the older minister know[s] of the struggle Rev. Allen had in building strong church organizations so that the load for the younger clergymen might be easier.
Though his tenure in Los Angeles was but two years, the Reverend Jordan Allen had a major impact through his efforts to get the First (Stevens) African Methodist Episcopal Church edifice built in 1888, and he certainly deserves remembrance as a “Black Pioneer of Los Angeles County” and as a “New Negro” fighting for his people, politically as well as religiously.
This article offers a wonderfully detailed and engaging exploration of an important chapter in local and church history. The thoughtful presentation of the life and work of Jordan Allen provides valuable insight into the contributions of early Black religious leaders and pioneers in Los Angeles County. It is inspiring to see such careful attention given to preserving the stories of individuals whose leadership helped shape both faith communities and the broader social landscape.
I especially appreciate how the piece situates Rev. Allen’s ministry within the history of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles and the wider legacy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The depth of research and respectful storytelling make this a meaningful contribution to historical understanding. Thank you for sharing such a well-crafted and informative reflection that helps keep these important narratives alive for today’s readers.