Mount Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church
913 E. Calhoun St., Palestine, TXOrganized in 1873, Mount Vernon reportedly is the third oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the state. It testifies to the active and involved African-American population in Palestine during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The congregation built its first house of worship at this location in the late 1870s and completed this building in 1921. Evaluated within the context of Community and Regional Development in Palestine, Texas: 1846-1945, the Mount Vernon African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church is nominated to the National Register under Criteria A and C at the local level of significance for its associations with Palestine's Black Ethnic Heritage and its noteworthy Gothic Revival architecture.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.