Mount Lebanon A.M.E. Zion Church

The church just ahead is Mount Lebanon African Methodist Episcopal Zion, one of the oldest Black congregations in the Albemarle region. It began around eighteen fifty as a Colored Mission organized within the basement of Elizabeth City's white Methodist church. By eighteen fifty-five the mission reported hundreds of members.

The next year, trustees purchased a lot on African Street and built a frame house of worship. By the time the Civil War broke out, Mount Lebanon had grown into one of the largest congregations in the city. The church soon affiliated with the A.

M.E. Zion connection, and has held continuous services here since eighteen fifty-six, more than one hundred sixty years of unbroken ministry in the heart of northeastern North Carolina.