| 9990 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH |
East Mount Zion Baptist Church (EMZ) was founded in 1908 by the offspring of sharecroppers who left the Jim Crow South during the Great Migration. In 1955, EMZ broke racial barriers when it became the first African American congregation to hold religious services on Euclid Avenue, after purchasing the former Euclid Avenue Congregational Church.
The church was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by nationally known architect George Kramer. Completed in 1908, the building is clad in green serpentine stone and boasts stained glass windows from the J.R. Lamb Studio. The rich interior, laid on in an Akron Plan design, reflects the wealth of the early congregation which was comprised of Cleveland’s wealthiest elite who made their homes along Euclid Avenue, once known as Millionaire’s Row.
EMZ became an active convening place for civil rights organizing in Cleveland, with women playing a particularly prominent role. During the 1950s and 1960s, the EMZ congregation hosted numerous NAACP drives for membership campaigns and voter registration and hosted 300 delegates of the 1962 Ohio convention of the NAACP. In 1965, EMZ was a launch site for the mayoral campaign of Carl B. Stokes, who became the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.
In February 2022, the church was listed in the National Register for Historic Places and has been a designated Cleveland Landmark since 1980.
Learn more about the history of this building here.
The Sacred Landmarks Support Initiative completed a pro-bono conditions assessment for the church in 2020. This assessment was used to inform the congregation about the serious and pressing needs of the building. CRS then partnered with the church to secure funding through the Ohio History Connection’s Certifed Local Government (CLG) grant program for a more in-depth assessment of the church’s failing stone. Both were used by EMZ to secure a highly competitive grant from Partners for Sacred Places. CRS was subsequently awarded a $750,000 National Park Service grant to add to EMZ’s funds. These funds will result in a new roof to protect the building and stone from further deterioration as they continue to fundraise to do major repairs to the stone.
