Lakeville A.M.E. Zion Church (1833) Mmanhass, NY

For nearly 200 years, the Lakeville African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was a place where outsiders could worship.  One of the oldest black churches in the state; it was founded by freed slaves and Matinecock settlers of the community.  Success in 1833, only five years after slavery was abolished in New York.

The church, originally called the colored people’s meeting house, was built on Valley Road, a dirt path that meandered in front of the building and was the main street for success.  About 30 homes some across the street where North Shore University Hospital now sites lines both sides of the street in the 1800’s, and black families freed by New York’s abolition of slavery in 1827 purchased homes and settled there.

Now called Community Drive, the road is a four-lane highway where vehicles buzz past the church’s front step and the unvarnished wooden cross, slightly warped, perched atop the entrance.  A cemetery with stones and white crosses is scattered around the weedy grounds.  The church served people who were not welcome elsewhere.  The Blacks and Indians could not go to the white man’s church, so they built their own.  Today, the 18 members of the church are mostly African-Americans from the South.

(SOURCE: NEWSDAY, 2002, EDITED BY: LAWRENCE E. WALKER, 2004)