JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The First Cambria AME Zion Church building, 409 Haynes St., Johnstown, has received the prestigious honor of being included on the National Register of Historic Places.
Being on the list means the building, which is the oldest Black church in Cambria County, has been deemed an important part of the nation’s history.
“Oh my goodness, we are ecstatic,” said the Rev. Sharon Johnson, a member of the congregation. “There’s no describing the feeling that we have, how we have been blessed with this historical designation.”
The register is administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. There are just under 100,000 buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts on the register that was started by the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966.
First Cambria representatives needed to gather information, turn in an application and submit to an onsite inspection before the church was granted membership.
“It was a very complicated process,” said Barbara Zaborowski, Pennsylvania Highlands Community College’s dean of library services and special projects, who helped with the application. “It’s a lot of steps. It had to be approved by the state first and then it was sent to the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. It was in the federal register for 30 days for comment and then they let the state know it was approved. A lot of research went into the application.”
The church has been a central part of the local community since it was founded in 1873 by Black citizens who were brought to Johnstown by William Rosensteel to work in his tannery.
Members participated in many historic events, including when parishioners fought in World War I and later contributed to the Civil Rights Movement. The church helped mitigate tensions in 1923 when Johnstown’s white mayor banished all Black and Mexicans who had not lived in the city for at least seven years.
The building survived Johnstown’s three major floods in 1889, 1936 and 1977.
All of that history will be celebrated beginning at 6 p.m. June 13 with a ceremony at the church to commemorate its inclusion on the register.
“It’s going to bring a lot of people together,” Johnson said. “It’s going to bring back memories. It’s going to bring people back into the community who have been away for all of this time and don’t know that this is taking place. It’s going to be something for former members, as well as the current members, to be proud of, and to be excited about and to be thankful for.”