Santa Monica Property Blog » PHILLIPS CHAPEL

PHILLIPS CHAPEL

68. Phillips Chapel, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 1908

2001 4th Street

At the turn of the 20^th century, races rarely mixed in worship. The continued presence of Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church at 2001 4th Street in Ocean Park demonstrates the resilience of the African American community in the face of social and political pressures. Having passed its 100^th birthday, Phillips Chapel, symbolizes the contributions Santa Monica’s African American residents have made to the cultural, social, and economic growth of the city. It is the first city landmark based on cultural significance versus architectural significance.

City records show that the unassuming church building now known as Phillips Chapel, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church began life as the Washington School , a one-room schoolhouse at the corner of Ashland Avenue and 4th Street. It was purchased and moved in 1908, and converted into a branch of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and was up the block from Santa Monica’s only Black-allowed beach – the Inkwell.

The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME) came into existence in 1870 as a result of the movement from slavery to freedom. It grew out of the Methodist Episcopal Church South (MECS), a denomination that had itself separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 over the issue of slavery. Education of the former slaves and their children was a priority for both groups.

By the late nineteenth century, the CME Church had established a number of districts of which the Fifth Episcopal District, led by Bishop Charles Henry Phillips, consisted of the Tennessee, Texas, West Texas, and East Texas Conferences. In 1905, Bishop Phillips, using funds raised from locals and CME churches throughout the United States, facilitated the purchase of a fire-damaged school building from the Santa Monica School Board. The 1890’s Folk Victorian and Colonial Revival style school house was moved it to its current site at 4th and Bay St., repaired the building and converted to religious use. It was named Phillips Chapel in honor of Father Phillips.

The corner stone was laid on October 31^st, 1909.

Reverend F. Herod was appointed to lead the new church. Three of the charter members - Mrs. Luvater Fritz, Mrs. Liza Heard, and Mrs. Ada Whitley - were among the earliest African American residents in Santa Monica.

In 1910, the Crescent Bay Lodge No. 19, a black Masonic order, was formed and met regularly at Phillips Chapel. Founding member, businessman Arthur L. Reese, was also a member of the SM CME Church.

In Santa Monica, the social life for African Americans consisted of family, church, their social organizations, and the public places and private businesses which served “their kind”. Discrimination limited most African Americans in the area to domestic and service work prior to World War II. The first members of Phillips Chapel did jobs such as “laborer, bricklayer, chauffer/driver, janitor, porter, carpenter, gardener and liquor store operator.”

The tremendous demand for workers in defense manufacturing industries during WWII was career emancipation for local African Americans. In Santa Monica, the Douglas Aircraft plant began hiring in the summer of 1942. African Americans working as Americans in the war effort was an early step toward professional equality.

The community’s new prosperity lead to a remodel of Phillip’s Chapel, converting the Folk Victorian to a more traditional Colonial Revival style; it evolved into a humbler version of the Calvary Baptist Church at 1502 20^th Street (built in 1947). Both properties exhibit the front-gabled Colonial Revival style with tall steeple – a popular style for African American church architecture of the period. (FYI – In 1948 religion was at its peak in Santa Monica - there were 48 different houses of worship in town.)

Rectangular in plan, Phillips Chapel is capped by a front-gabled roof with bracketed boxed eaves surmounted by a pyramidal-shaped steeple with flared ends. The center entrance is flanked by narrow windows on either side with faux buttresses anchoring the building to its concrete foundation.

Note the chapel’s 16 stained glass windows; installed during the building’s 1940s renovation, they honor individual and family names of various church members. City research reveals that many of these individuals were Santa Monica residents living in Ocean Park or between 14^th- 21st Streets from Santa Monica to Pico boulevards.

Now for some fascinating information on African Americans in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. In 1880, there were approximately 188 blacks in all of Los Angeles County. Census records for the City of Santa Monica indicate that in 1900, out of a total population of 3,057 persons, 60 (or approximately 2%) were identified as Negro. They lived with other ethnic communities such as Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, and eastern European Jews in the neighborhoods south of the arroyo that separated Santa Monica’s Central Business District and the wealthier residential communities, in the area known as Ocean Park.

Starting in the 1920s, the relatively good social and economic conditions that initially attracted blacks to Santa Monica in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries deteriorated. Increased anti-black prejudice and restrictive real estate covenants prevailed, and African Americans were barred from virtually all of Santa Monica’s beaches. One infamous act of discrimination occurred on May 31, 1920 when Arthur Valentine, an African American chauffer and his family, chose to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday at the whites-only beach in Santa Monica. Three sheriff’s deputies ordered him to leave the area; Valentine resisted and was beaten, shot, and arrested by the deputies. The charges were later dropped. This act of prejudice resulted in African Americans claiming a portion of the public beach located at the foot of Pico Boulevard for themselves. Dubbed the “Inkwell,” beach, the stretch of sand was located south of the Pico storm drain near the ruins of Santa Monica’s Crystal Plunge, an open-air swimming pool that had been abandoned following a flood in 1905.

Separated by a “for Negroes only” sign, Inkwell Beach became an oasis for African American beachgoers. After services, parishioners of Philips Chapel headed down to the beach after services for picnics and recreational activities. Segregated beaches were struck down by the courts in 1927, yet the Inkwell remained a popular African American beach destination. It is renowned as the place where the first documented black surfer, Santa Monica High School student Nick Gabaldon, mastered the sport. As late as the 1960s, the beach spot continued to be popular for post-church family outings for picnics, volleyball and ocean fun.

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