Hope Chapel AME Zion Celebrates 160 Years of Ministry, From Mobile’s Cuba Street to Prichard

PRICHARD, Ala. — For 160 years, through fire, relocation and changing times, the congregation of Hope Chapel AME Zion Church has kept gathering. On Sunday, Oct. 25, members came together to celebrate that milestone and to honor the legacy of one of the Mobile area’s longest-serving Black congregations.

“We feel good that we’re still standing, and we don’t plan on going anywhere,” longtime member Janese Sanders said.

Founded in 1866

Hope Chapel AME Zion was founded in Mobile in 1866, in the months after the end of the Civil War. Since then, members say, the church has been “pouring into the community” and spreading the message of Christ.

The church’s founding date places it among the many congregations established across the South during the Reconstruction era, when newly freed African Americans organized their own churches. Those churches often became centers not only for worship, but for education, community organizing and mutual support.

Hope Chapel is part of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a historically Black Methodist denomination. The AME Zion Church traces its origins to New York City in the late 1700s, when Black members left a predominantly white Methodist congregation to form their own church. After the Civil War, the denomination expanded rapidly across the South, and Alabama became one of its strongholds.

A lifelong member reflects

For Sanders, the anniversary is personal. She said Hope Chapel is the only church she has ever attended.

“I’ve never been to any other church,” Sanders said. “I’ve been at Hope Chapel all my life, and it means a lot that we still standing. We’re vibrant. We are still a meaningful part of a community.”

Members describe the congregation as rich in heritage and history, with generations of families who have worshipped together over the decades.

Fire on Cuba Street

The church’s 160-year history has included serious setbacks. In the 1980s, Hope Chapel’s original home on Cuba Street in Mobile burned down. The loss forced the congregation to hold services in other locations while it searched for a new permanent home.

Sanders said the Cuba Street church holds a special place in the congregation’s memory.

“On Cuba Street, that’s where we had the longest impact in Mobile,” Sanders said. “It’s called the campground, and many people came to that church.”

The Campground is the name long used for a historic neighborhood just north of downtown Mobile, an area with deep roots in Mobile’s Black community.

A new home on Wolf Ridge Road

In 1989, the congregation found a new location on Wolf Ridge Road in Prichard. The church has remained there for the past 37 years, serving members from Prichard, Mobile and across Mobile County.

Prichard, which borders Mobile to the north, has its own long history as a center of Black community life in the region. Many congregations that began in Mobile’s older neighborhoods have relocated over the years as families moved and as buildings were lost to fire, storms or redevelopment.

The pastor’s hope for the next 160 years

Pastor Shiela Richardson, who leads the congregation, shared her hopes for the church’s future during the anniversary celebration.

“I hope that we will be even more entrenched in the community,” Richardson said. “I pray that our pews will be full and overflowing, because our goal is to make disciples, to lead people to Christ, to lead the unchurched and the unsafe.”

Her words reflect a mission common to many historic congregations: holding on to tradition while reaching new people. Churches like Hope Chapel often serve as a gathering place for neighborhood events, outreach programs, funerals, weddings and community meetings, giving them a role that reaches well beyond Sunday services.

Why church anniversaries matter

Milestone anniversaries are an important tradition in many Black churches. They are a time to recognize founding members and longtime families, tell the church’s story to younger generations and renew commitments to the congregation’s mission. For a church that has outlasted a fire, moved from one city to another and kept its doors open for more than a century and a half, 160 years is a meaningful mark.

The history of Hope Chapel also mirrors larger changes in the Mobile area. Its founding just after emancipation, its long presence in the Campground neighborhood and its move to Prichard in the late 1980s trace the movement of people and institutions across the region over many generations.

Hope Chapel AME Zion timeline

• 1866: Hope Chapel AME Zion is founded in Mobile.
• Cuba Street era: The church builds its longest-lasting presence in Mobile on Cuba Street in the area known as the Campground.
• 1980s: The original Cuba Street church burns down, and the congregation meets in other locations.
• 1989: The church moves to Wolf Ridge Road in Prichard.
• 2026: Hope Chapel marks 160 years of ministry with a celebration on Sunday, Oct. 25, and 37 years at its Prichard location.

Still standing

For members like Sanders, the message of the anniversary was simple. The church has survived hard times, and it intends to keep serving.

“We’re vibrant,” she said. “We are still a meaningful part of a community.”

Hope Chapel AME Zion Church is located on Wolf Ridge Road in Prichard. Those interested in visiting or learning more about the congregation can contact the church directly.