We know that Penllyn is known to have a strong black community, but how about Ambler? Where in the borough did the majority of African Americans live? It turns out that most of the black community live in the northern part of Ambler next to where CVS Pharmacy is currently located. Included is a church that stood over 100 years ago.
Local History
According to various sources, the Emanuel A.U.M.P. church was established in 1885 in Fort Washington before moving to Spring House. It wasn't until the mid 1900s members of the church decided to move their church to Ambler on York and Poplar Streets. The current location of the church is now on North Street and Woodland Avenue.
On February 5, 1906, the Emanuel A.U.M.P. was officially incorporated.
A Black Church in North Ambler
Usually, black churches are located in the heart of the black community, specifically in West Ambler and Penllyn. For the Emanuel A.U.M.P. church, it was located in North Ambler, previously a white-dominant neighborhood. Martin Kilson, the first black professor at Harvard University, pointed this out in his autobiography that it was fortunate for him and his family to have a church in a neighborhood in North Ambler since his father was a pastor at the church during the 1930s and 40s.
"The African American neighborhood along North Street and Woodland Avenue in North Ambler was a unique enclave within the context of Ambler, directly bordering as it did upper-middle-class white neighborhoods. In the 1930s and 1940s, white families exiting their homes to their garages looked upon the backyards of African American homes. Indeed, on North Street, where I lived, the backyards of African Americans were separated from upper-middle-class white homes along Bethlehem Pike by an unpaved alleyway, which white families traversed in their automobiles to reach their garages. The unusual set-up drew attention. Visitors to Emanuel Church from Philadelphia-area African Methodist churches would often ask my mother, 'How come Negroes live so near the white folks, Sister Kilson?' My mother's reply: 'Because the white folks want their Negro help nearby.'"
- Martin Kilson,
A Black Intellectual's Odyssey: From a Pennsylvania Milltown to the Ivy League
Bibliography
"Google Maps Area Calculator Tool." DaftLogic. Accessed January 2, 2022. https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm.
Kilson, Martin. A Black Intellectual's Odyssey: From a Pennsylvania Milltown to the Ivy League. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021).
Mueller, A. H. Atlas of the North Penn Section of Montgomery County, Pa., Plate 26, 1916.
Quattrone, Frank D. Ambler. (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2004): 56.
"Town Topics." Ambler Gazette. October 21, 1920. Page 5. http://digitalcollections.powerlibrary.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wivp-gazett/id/6542/rec/2.
"Wissahickon Valley Public Library's Ambler Gazette Collection." POWER Library: Pennsylvania's Electronic Library. Accessed April 23, 2022. http://digitalcollections.powerlibrary.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/wivp-gazett.