The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (also known as North Methodist Episcopal Church) is a historic Methodist Episcopal Church at 2051 Main Street in Hartford, Connecticut. This High Victorian Gothic structure was built in 1873-74 for an Episcopal congregation, and has since 1926 been the home to the city's oldest African-American congregation, which was established in 1833 The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
March 10, 1881 Thursday – Sam gave a reading at the “African Church” (A.M.E. Zion Church, Pearl St., Hfd.) in Hartford. He included Uncle Remus’s “Tar Baby” (see Feb. 27 entry to Howells).
Day By Day references this location however there was another church in Hartford that may be the location of Sam's reading, The Faith Congregational Church, known then as the Talcott Street Congregational Church. I don't know the source of the Day By Day entry.
From Kevin Mac Donnell (6/18/2024);
Tis no problem at all. Twain read a Joel Chandler Harris tar baby story at the Pearl Street AME Zion Church on that date. This church was listed in Geer's Hartford directory as the AME Zion Church at 269 Pearl Street in the 1870s. In 1926 it moved to its current location at 2051 Main Street into a building originally built in 1873-1874 for a white ME congregation. The pastor of this church, Rev. Samuel Blanks, was a participant in the panel discussion following my talk on George Griffin in Hartford last month. Griffin was Mark Twain's butler and a deacon in that church. You can read all about Mr. Griffin in the latest issue of the Mark Twain Journal.
The Pearl Street Address is mapped.