Agenda - 09-04-2014 - 6m - Laserfiche WebLink

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PROPOSED ADDITION TO THE AGENDA — PROPOSED ITEM�66"'&( ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: September 4, 2014 Action Agenda Item No. SUBJECT: A Resolution Commemorating Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on the 150th Anniversary of its Founding DEPARTMENT: County Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y /N) No ATTACHMENT (S): Resolution INFORMATION CONTACT: Commissioner Price Donna Baker, 245 -2130 Clerk to the Board PURPOSE: The Board will consider a Resolution Commemorating Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on the 150th Anniversary of its Founding. BACKGROUND: In 1864, during the Civil War, Kenny Brooks, Green Cordal, Charles Craig, J. Craig, Charles H. Johnson, C.E.H. Johnson, Green Merritt and William Thompson, under the leadership of Jerry Hargraves and Edwin Allen, organized a Black Methodist Church. On December 29, 1864, men and women of African and Native American descent assembled under a grape arbor to worship freely as free people on the very same site where the present church building stands on Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill. In 1870, Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Episcopal Church system, headquartered in PI the church was purchased for the sum of December 1892. Church was inducted into the African Methodist iladelphia; and on April 15, 1878, the land for 55, and the church building was erected in The Saint Paul AME Church building stands as an historical landmark of the local Chapel Hill /Orange County community and of the State of North Carolina. In 2002, Saint Paul AME Church formed a non - profit organization, the Grape Arbor Development Corporation, targeting services to Orange County youth in grades K -8 and Saint Paul AME Church recently purchased 20.4 acres of land for the building of a new and expanded worship center, and additional community amenities in the near future. RECOMMENDATION (S): The Manager recommends the Board consider this resolution.