The Palo Alto History Project, AME Zion Church

The Palo Alto History Project

AME Zion Church
819 Ramona Street

2006

The AME Zion Church: Reconstructing History

At the corner of Forest and Ramona, an old wooden church stands on stilts as a two-story parking garage is
built underneath. Indeed, as part of the new office complex being built, that old church is going to be saved
after more than forty years of being slated for destruction.

The AME Zion Church at 819 Ramona Street was originally built with support from the African-American
and Japanese-American communities surrounding Ramona Street in 1925. It was the first African-American
church between San Mateo and San Jose, and it remains the only public building left in Palo Alto that recalls
the city's Black history.

When the AME Zion congregation moved to a new site on Middlefield Road in 1965, the church and the
site were bought by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation with plans to tear it down. Over the years, the
Foundation used it mainly for storage.

When the Foundation began to plan for its 1998 expansion and eventual move, the church -- by then
damaged by the ’89 earthquake and years of neglect -- was slated for destruction. But history came
forward in the person of Ruth Anne Gray. Her grandfather, Isaac McDuffey Hinson, was a founder of the
church, and Gray waged a vigorous campaign to try to save it.

Gray took her case to a state Historical Resources Commission meeting in Pasadena and convinced them to
unanimously vote to place the church on the National Register of Historic Places -- thereby making it harder
to tear down. The board also concluded that the non-profit Palo Alto Medical Foundation should be
saddled with the substantial costs (hundreds of thousands of dollars) of renovating the church, which to this
day has holes in its roof, crumbling stucco walls, buckling base walls and serious termite problems.

Given the mix of political issues involved -- race, historical preservation, religion -- the Palo Alto City
Council was hesitant to even get near the issue. The AME Zion congregation, long-since residing in a new
building was more opinionated. They disagreed with Ruth Anne Gray, saying that the Foundation could use
the building "in whatever way they deem profitable to their cause."

Not wishing to bear the costs of renovation, the P.A.M.F. eventually sold the church to the Menlo Equities
development group, which decided to save it along with a nearby historic French Laundry. Now after years
of negotiations with the city and nearby residents, the project is finally underway.

Despite its now dilapidated condition, the church has a compelling history. During the Great Depression
year of 1935, the church faced foreclosure, but white and Japanese neighbors help raise enough money to
save it. Palo Alto’s first historian, Guy Miller, called it “one of the city's brightest brotherhood-in-action
episodes.” The All Saint's Episcopal Church --- which was predominately White --- sponsored numerous
fund raising dinners to help retire the mortgage on the church. The American Legion, Shriners, Kiwanis, and
Rotary Club also provided financial support and the media backed the effort in the form of Dallas E. Wood's
"The Prowler" column in the Times. Eventually, accounts were established at all local banks for the AME
Zion so that contributions could be made. On July 8, 1939 the mortgage was "burned" and the AME Zion
was saved.

Of course, the church is also at the heart of two of Palo Alto’s less tolerant moments -- when the African-
American and Japanese-American residents were expelled from downtown Palo Alto. During World War
II, Japanese-Americans on Ramona Street lost their homes and were sent to internment camps. During the
1950s, African-Americans in the neighborhood were redlined into moving to East Palo Alto. Advocates of
the church say that it would be the perfect public place to tell and remember these stories through the
transformation of the church into a public museum. It is this history, they say -- not simply the building --
that makes it a crucially important historic resource.

Although it looks like a museum will never be built, the church will be saved from the wrecking ball. And
looking at the old building with its gaping holes, missing windows and wooden shell laid bare, it’s nice to
know that it will one day stand proud again --- even if only as office space.

-Matt Bowling
(Note: This article ran in the Palo Alto Daily News in 2007)

What is left of the old AME
Zion Church

The church from the back

AME Zion from the front

Palo Alto Home Page

The church on stilts as
constructions gets under way
next door.