Battleground to Community

— Brightwood Heritage Trail —

Across Quackenbos Street is Emory United Methodist Church. Named to honor Bishop John Emory of Maryland (1789-1835), the congregation dates from 1832.

From the beginning, Emory welcomed all races but, like most Washington churches then, seated African Americans in a separate gallery. In 1846 the national Methodist church split over the slavery issue. Seven years later Emory sided with the South. In 1939 the Methodist Church reunited.

Despite its southern sympathies, the church had helped Union forces build Fort Massachusetts (later named Fort Stevens) in 1861. Troops tore down Emory's new church to build an ammunition magazine, using some of the bricks to build the fort. Emory's basement served as a military jail. In 1870 the congregation replaced the lost building with a stone chapel, which was later replaced by the current church.

Emory's support for the nation's needs has included ministering to soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital during and after World War I.

As Brightwood's racial complexion changed in the 1950s, Emory's congregation became predominantly African American by the 1970s.

In the late 1880s, the city built a public school for Brightwood's White children on this corner. The current Brightwood Elementary at 13th and Nicholson streets succeeded it in 1925.

As you proceed to sign 16, note the driveway that separates Emory Church from Fort Stevens. It is a remnant of the original Piney Branch Road, built to bypass the toll booth on the Seventh Street Turnpike (later Brightwood Avenue and now Georgia Avenue).

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