Macedonia Baptist Church
Denver County
The historic African-American congregation of the Macedonia Baptist Church has been housed at this location since 1963. The buildings are locally significant in the areas of Ethnic Heritage: Black and Social History for the church’s association with and role in Denver’s civil rights struggle between 1963, date of the move of the congregation to this location, and 1965, in accordance with National Register guidance. Among other civil rights luminaries over the course of the church’s history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at this location in January 1964.
Denver Macedonia Baptist Church
The church and its educational annex are further locally significant in the area of Architecture for 1954, the year of their construction for a different congregation, as a fine example with excellent integrity of mid-century Modernism (Modern Movement) as applied to religious buildings designed by two Denver Modernist architects, Harlan E. Rathbun (education annex) and Ralph D. Peterson (church). The buildings feature abstract and figurative art glass, original mid-century materials, prominent use of brick with clerestory and steel-frame fenestration, and a horizontality grounding them in the landscape.