Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is located in Hartford north side Clay-Arsenal neighborhood, on the west side of Main Street just north of Mahl Avenue. It is a large 3-1/2 story brick structure with stone trim. A large gable faces the street, with a pair of entrances at opposite ends of the facade. The left entrance is topped by a buttressed tower with belfry and steeple. Windows have Gothic pointed arches, and are set in varying groups and sizes on the facade, with pale stone headers. Stone beltcourses separate the various levels of the building.[2]

The church was built in 1873-74 for a predominantly white Methodist Episcopal congregation. That congregation moved to a new building in 1919, selling this one to a Jewish congregation, which used it as a synagogue until 1926. The present congregation, whose roots date to 1833, purchased the building in that year. The Metropolitan AME congregation was first located on Elm Street, in a building later taken by the city as part of Bushnell Park. It then built a new church on Pearl Street, which was replaced by a larger one on the same site in 1898, which it occupied until acquiring this property.[2]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford, Connecticut