Explore Paul R. Williams’ Drawing of the First AME

Look at an Architectural Drawing

Before reading about the building pictured in this drawing, see what you can discover just by looking closely. Write what you notice, think, or feel about the building and surrounding site using the guiding questions below.

What details do you notice at first glance?

• What words would you use to describe the buildings and site?
• What kinds of architectural details do you notice?
• This was a drawing made as part of the design process for the First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Los Angeles, California. The architect, Paul R. Williams, wanted to create a building that would feel inviting for members of the community. What elements of the building and site design might help to convey a sense of welcome?
• If you covered up the caption, would you immediately know this building is a church? Why or why not?

Read About This Drawing of the First AME Church in Los Angeles, California

This drawing of First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is by architect Paul R. Williams. Williams began designing the new First AME Church around 1960, contributing his services for free to the church. The building, completed in 1969, is located in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Williams and many other prominent Black residents lived at the time. Its most distinctive features are the geometric beams supporting the sanctuary roof and the bold zigzag portico at the entrance, which sits elevated above the surrounding landscape. The symmetry of the main building creates balance and a sense of harmony. The sanctuary holds 5,000 seats and the complex includes an auditorium, classrooms, and a library.

The design of this building was deeply personal for Williams. His foster family were members of the congregation for years, and later, Williams met his future wife there. The pastor specifically requested that Williams design the new building. When Williams died in 1980, his funeral was held in this monumental building he designed.

Look at a Drawing Showing an Interior View of the Church

Williams’ designs for the First AME Church also included interior views. Consider the following questions as you look closely at this drawing of the central interior space.

• What details do you notice? How would you describe this space?
• What adjectives would you use to describe the size of the space inside the First AME Church? Use the drawings of the people for scale.
• What elements of the exterior building design are similar to the interior design?

Read About the First AME Church in Los Angeles, California and its Importance to the Community

The First AME Church was far more than a place of worship. As a spiritual home, it kept African American Methodist traditions alive and gave the community a space to worship, grieve, celebrate, and organize entirely on their own terms. Paul R. Williams designed the First AME Church when Black residents of Los Angeles were denied equal rights.

People think of racial segregation as only being in the Jim Crow South, where laws legally forced Black and white people to live separate lives and denied Black citizens their basic rights. However, California enforced strict racial divisions through strict legal, economic, and social segregation. When Black residents of Los Angeles were shut out of banks, hospitals, hotels, and social services, the church stepped in, organizing mutual aid, legal support, and economic resources for those who had nowhere else to turn. It was also a civil rights hub where marches, rallies, and speeches took shape, including addresses by Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout the 20th century, the congregation worked to resist housing discrimination, police violence, and employment exclusion, making First AME one of the most important institutions in the history of Los Angeles.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• Williams designed this modern building using classical design rules like perfect symmetry and balanced shapes. How might this design shape a visitor’s first impression?
• What do the tall columns and wide spaces of the building entrance communicate to members of the church? How does the interior design mirror what the exterior design communicates?
• Williams said he designed the church as a member of the congregation, not just as an architect. In what ways can a person’s identity shape the work they create?
• How does a building like First AME Church shape the community that gathers inside it, and how does that community in turn shape what the building means and how it is used?

A network or group of people, sometimes living in a particular place, who share interests, values, characteristics, responsibilities, or physical spaces.

A group of people who gather together to worship, pray, and practice their faith

Actions stemming from conscious or unconscious prejudice, which favor and empower one group over others based on differences of race, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, language, age, national identity, and other categories.

An organization or the buildings that house them that has been around for a long time and plays a major role in a community’s life.

The period roughly from the 1870s to the mid-1960s in the United States, particularly in the South, during which state and local laws enforced racial segregation and discrimination against Black Americans.

A porch-like architectural structure leading to the entrance of a building.

The most important area at the front of a church where the religious service is led.

The physical or social separation of people into different groups based on race, ethnicity, or other social traits, which can be enforced by law (de jure) or happen naturally through economic or social habits (de facto).

When one side of an object (like a drawing or building) perfectly mirrors, balances, or matches the other side.