Star Hill AME Church

The Star Hill African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is located in the community of Star Hill, south of the village of Camden in North Murderkill Hundred, Delaware. This resource is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A as an important focal point of the community of Star Hill, an early community of African-American settlement in Kent County. It is also eligible under Criterion C as a well-preserved example of late nineteenth-early twentieth-century church architecture as expressed by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Kent County, Delaware. The Star Hill AME Church and its associated cemetery provide the only physical reminder of the majority of the members of the Star Hill community, as the intense development in the area since the middle of the twentieth century has obliterated the majority of the historic fabric in the community.

The Founding of the Community of Star Hill

The community of Star Hill is a triangular-shaped area covering approximately twenty acres of land in the northern section of North Murderkill Hundred. Two small creeks, Newells Branch and Tidbury Branch, which run behind the church, flow into a mill pond that powered Ezekiel Nock's mill, now called Voshell's mill (extant, but converted to a residence) on Road 361.

Star Hill was settled by free blacks on land obtained with the assistance of the Camden Quaker community in the late eighteenth century. A Quaker school for the education of African-American children was established in Star Hill in the early nineteenth century. Star Hill residents who were members of the AME church attended services in nearby Camden at the Zion AME Church (This building was recently proposed for listing in the National Register). In 1863 a split in the congregation caused the formation of the Star Hill AME Church, also known as The Star of the East Church.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has its roots in Kent County. The founder of the denomination, Richard Allen (1760-1831), was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a house slave of prominent attorney and Quaker, Benjamin Chew. Allen and his family were sold as field hands to a planter named Stockley who lived near Dover, Delaware when he was seven years old. His personal conversion to Methodism occurred at about age seventeen, c. 1777, after hearing the preaching of a Methodist circuit rider. He joined the local Methodist society under the leadership of John Gray. Allen attended clandestine classes in the Methodist faith under his leadership. Allen's master encouraged religious worship among his slaves and was converted himself by the circuit-riding preachers. It was the charismatic preacher Freeborn Garrettson of Maryland who convinced Stockley of the evils of slavery. Stockley eventually allowed his slaves to purchase their freedom.

Richard Allen and planter Stockley were not alone in this conversion. The Delmarva Peninsula was a hotbed of religious, particularly Methodist fervor at this time. Methodism, with its tendency toward emotional preaching and egalitarian philosophy, was seen as an alternative to the tradition and ritual of the Anglican Church. Prior to the American Revolution, the Methodist circuit riders converted a good percentage of the population to the teachings of John Wesley and Francis Asbury.

The Methodist doctrine of egalitarianism was intriguing to the enslaved population as well. By 1787, thirty percent of all Methodists on the Delmarva Peninsula were African American. In practice, the egalitarian philosophy did not translate across racial and gender lines, which ultimately proved to be intolerable to Allen and his followers.

Richard Allen purchased his freedom in early 1786 and relocated to Philadelphia. As Allen and other black preachers converted large numbers of blacks to Methodism, the Methodist church began to discriminate against these new converts, despite the messages that were preached from the pulpit. The discrimination included the denial of seating to black congregants during church services. The needs of his community were not being addressed by the white church hierarchy so in 1787, Allen, along with Absalom Jones organized the Free African Society, a non-sectarian group formed to serve and support the black community in Philadelphia. Membership in the Free African Society was not limited by doctrine. Absalom Jones, the fellow founder of the group became an Episcopal Priest and later, the first black Episcopal Bishop.

Despite the quarrels with the white church hierarchy, Richard Allen was firmly committed to the Methodist doctrine. He began a movement to form a separate parish in Philadelphia, whose goals were to minister to both the spiritual and secular needs of the black community.

The same problems of racial bias in the Methodist and other white-run churches in other cities caused similar activities among their black parishioners. Separate black parishes were formed. Soon there was a need to establish a more formal organization. In 1816 representatives of these churches met to formally establish the African Methodist Episcopal Church as a separate denomination. Richard Allen was elected the first Bishop. A book of discipline was adopted which embodied the same articles of religion and rules as the Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first Christian denomination to be spawned for sociological, rather than doctrinal reasons.

The Star Hill AME Church and Cemetery

The mother church of the Star Hill AME Church was the Zion AME Church in nearby Camden. It was founded c. 1845 and served the African Methodists of the Star Hill community as well until a disagreement in the early 1860s caused a rift in the congregation. Soon after the construction of a church began in Star Hill. The new congregation met in the first floor of the Odd Fellows Hall until the new church was constructed. The land for the church was purchased from Henry Postles in June 1866 for $30 by the following trustees of the newly formed church: William R. Hearess, James Till, Solomon H. Townsend, Caito Gray, and William Bungay. This site was the highest point of land in the Star Hill community. The first meetings were held in the school building until the church was completed. A cemetery was platted to the east of the church and additional land was acquired.

In 1905, the building suffered damage by a small fire which consumed the balcony in the sanctuary. The church records were stored there and they were completely lost. The rest of the building suffered minor damage and was immediately rebuilt. The interior of the sanctuary has been updated over time since construction. The detailing of the windows and wainscotting date from the late nineteenth century, as do the alter railings and dais. The pews were replaced in the 1960s but several of the original benches were reused throughout the church building. The alter furnishings were replaced when the pews were changed but many of the pieces remain in the building.

The church building has received the careful attention of a devoted core of trustees who have maintained the building, despite the declining church membership in the last few years.
The cemetery on the site has been the site of burials since the erection of the church, according to the church elders, although the earliest marked grave dates from the 1890s. Headstones, which date from the 1890s to the present, consist of simple headstones, some grouped in family sections. otherwise unmarked grave has a metal veterans star protruding from it. Mature vegetation along the creek bed, which follows the north property boundary, has, until recently, obscured some graves. Other vegetation was planted to mark specific plots. Burials continue to the present day, with one final cemetery plot awaiting its occupant.

Schools at Star Hill

Education for the children of the Star Hill community has been an important part of the history of the nominated property. The site selected for the church was located on the highest point of land in the community and near an existing building. Constructed c. 1843, this two-story structure served as a meeting hall for the Odd Fellows organization which used the second floor exclusively. The Odd Fellows opened the first floor to the community to hold other functions, which may have included a school for African-American children, run by the Quakers of the Camden Meeting. During the construction of the church, meetings and services were held there. This generosity continued throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the late 1930s, the membership in the Odd Fellows organization had severely declined. The few remaining members gave the building to the church and began to attend meetings at the Odd Fellows Hall in Camden. Around that time, the second floor was removed, possibly at the direction of the Odd Fellows and the church used the building as a social hall in its one-story form. In 1962 the building was reoriented to its present location, and attached to the church by the existing hyphen.

A school building was constructed on the land immediately to the west of the church in the early 1870s. Built by a Wilmington philanthropic group, the Society for the Moral Improvement and Education of the Colored People, with funds from the federal agency, the Bureau for Abandoned Lands, Refugees and Freedmen, this two-story, frame, gable-roofed building had one room on each of two floors. It served as a school for the Star Hill community until 1926 when a new two-room school was built down the road from the earlier site. The new brick building was constructed as part of a statewide rebuilding of schools for African-American children by Pierre S. du Pont, a Delaware public education reformer and philanthropist. The old school building was converted to a home for the pastor of the church for a short while but was torn down shortly thereafter. The brick, two-room DuPont school in Star Hill has been significantly changed over time through large additions to the property, alteration to the interior, and the enclosure of all exterior openings in the original building. Although a historically important building to the community, this property no longer retains sufficient architectural integrity to be eligible for listing in the National Register.

Star Hill Today

Today, the former Odd Fellows Hall, now church social hall, continues to serve the Star Hill community as well as African American children across Kent County. What began in the mid-1980s as a Black History Month exhibit has grown into an exhibition of artifacts, photographs, and books which display historical information for the children which is put up in January and taken down after the end of the school year. Topics presented include African art, slave lifeways and slavery, African American inventors and their inventions, the history of the Star Hill community and church, and prominent African Americans of all professions. The effort to have the Star Hill AME Church listed on the National Register was spearheaded by the newly formed Star Hill Historical Society, a group of local historians and concerned citizens, which is dedicated to the preservation of the history and the remaining historic buildings in this community.