CLAYBORN TEMPLE WORLD GOSPEL MUSEUM

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Built in 1891 as Second Presbyterian Church, the Gothic Revival church was a focal point for the civil rights movement in Memphis in the 1960s. The property has many interesting features, including stained glass, a chandelier and an organ.
It’s where the marches started and ended for sanitation workers in the 1960s and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there several times.

The property is also adjacent to Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church, which could present zoning issues for any new construction, such as building a property which would sell alcohol. The African Methodist Episcopal Church acquired the building in 1949, renaming it Clayborn Temple after John Henry Clayborn, chairman of the AME Church’s 13th district. in addition to the $1 million purchase cost, the property would take around $4 million to renovate.