The Fountain Chapel was a church located at 823 Jackson Avenue in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

from 1918 until 1985. It was the local chapter of the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...

(AME) and was co-founded by Nora Hendrix (grandmother of guitarist

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

) to serve Vancouver's

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

community. Although not officially designated a heritage structure, the building is one of a few markers of the black community that once flourished in this part of Vancouver. Prior to the establishment of the Fountain Chapel, black Christians held services in rented halls around town, and eventually a small group decided they should have a permanent church of their own. They set out to raise funds for the project and arranged for the AME to match the amount raised locally. Once financing was secured, they purchased the building on Jackson Avenue that was built in 1910 and had served as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church for German and Scandinavian immigrants. The AME is a well-established Christian denomination that was founded in 1816 by

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s in response to the racism they encountered in non-segregated churches. As such, the AME was an important institution for black opposition to antebellum slavery and anti-black racism generally. The AME's activist tradition continued in Vancouver. The church was the locus for organizing against racism on more than one occasion. In the 1922-1923 trial of Fred Deal, a railroad porter charged with murdering

Vancouver police The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) () is the police force in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several police departments within the Greater Vancouver, Metro Vancouver Area and is the second largest police force in the provinc ...

constable and

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

recipient

Robert McBeath Robert Gordon McBeath, VC (22 December 1898 – 9 October 1922) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious medal that can be awarded to members of British military forces. Following the end of the First Worl ...

, the congregation of the Fountain Chapel mobilized to ensure that the likelihood Deal was racially targeted by police was accounted for in the verdict. Consequently, the case was re-tried and Deal's original death sentence was reduced to life in prison. In another case in the 1950s, the Fountain Chapel was used to voice the black community's demands for an inquiry into the police beating of Clarence Clemons, a black longshoreman, who died shortly after the incident in question. The black community that had geographically coalesced around the Fountain Chapel in the city's East End was displaced during the city's

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

programs of the 1950s and 1960s. In 1985, not long after Nora Hendrix's death, the AME sold the building, which housed the Basel Hakka Lutheran Church from then until 2008, when the building was officially decommissioned as a church and became a private residence. The building is situated at the eastern edge of what was once Hogan's Alley. On January 30, 2014, Canada Post issued a stamp commemorating Hogan's Alley and the Official First Day Cover depicts an illustration of the Fountain Chapel.Canada Post Hogan's Alley OFDC
/ref>

References

{{coord , 49.2770, N, 123.0939, W, display=title Churches in Vancouver History of Black people in Canada African Methodist Episcopal churches History of Black people in British Columbia Black Canadian organizations