Overview:
• Allen Temple AME Church, established in 1824, was honored with a street naming ceremony to celebrate its 200-year history.
• Rev. James King and Rev. Phillip Brodie established the first organized Black congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Allen Temple AME Church was established in 1824 by Rev. James King, who had been enslaved, and Rev. Phillip Brodie. Rev. Alphonse Allen Jr. now is the leader of this historic church. Allen Temple AME Church member and Attorney Paula Lampley, organized the honorary street naming with the Office of Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. The ceremony was held April 18 on the corner of Reading Road and Seymour Avenue in Bond Hill.
In the early 19th century, there were some African Americans in Cincinnati who worshiped at White Methodist Episcopal churches, but they often were mistreated. They knew what had happened in the 1790s in Philadelphia: Black worshippers at St. George’s Church in Philadelphia were made to sit in a segregated section of the church. One Sunday, Revs. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones and other Black members of St. George’s congregation were pulled up as they were kneeling in prayer at the altar with the White worshippers. In protest, Black members of the congregation walked out of the church.
Rev. Allen went on to establish the new African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1794. Like Revs. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones a few decades before, Revs. King and Brodie decided enough was enough, and so in 1824, they established the first organized Black congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Crowd gathers for street naming ceremony to honor 200-year-old church. Credit: Ethan Nichols 
Present for the Allen Temple honorary street renaming ceremony were: front row, from left, Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Rev. John Wright, former First Lady Kathy Jordan, First Lady Fran Allen, President Hamilton County Commission Alicia Reece, Rev. Dr. Alphonse Allen Jr, member Carol Davis. In back, from left are retired Pastor Wilton Blake, unknown, Mayor Aftab Pureval, Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Community Council President Jacqueline Edmerson Bond Hill, members Paul Davis and Member Gwen Wilder. Credit: Ethan Nichols 
Mayor Aftab Pureval. Credit: Ethan Nichols 
Paula Lampley, a representative of Allen Temple, and organizer of the street naming event. 
Allen Temple AME Church’s pastor, Rev. Alphonse Allen, Jr. and his wife, First Lady Fran Allen. Credit: Ethan Nichols 
Rev John Wright, Allen Temple AME Church and Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (in back). Credit: Ethan Nichols 
Street sign. Credit: Ethan Nichols
The church moved from Rev. King’s home to Rev. Brodie’s cellar, and then became known as the Little Red Church on the Green (North Street near New), Lime House (Seventh Street east of Broadway), The Old Bethel (Sixth Street east of Broadway), Allen Chapel (1856-1873), and today Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church. Allen Temple moved to Roselawn in 1979.
In 1998, under the leadership of Reverend Donald H. Jordan Sr., Allen Temple formed The Allen Temple Real Estate Foundation to acquire and operate the Swifton Commons Mall in Bond Hill which became known as Jordan’s Crossing, now known as Midpointe Crossing that is owned by The Port (development authority).