The surrounding neighborhood, once the heart of downtown Indianapolis's African American community, significantly changed with post-World War II urban development that included new hotels, apartments, office space, museums, and the Indiana University–Purdue University at Indianapolis campus.

It is especially noted for its activities on behalf of the antislavery movement in the years before the American Civil War; its support of the Underground Railroad, which provided protection to slaves en route to Canada; and its commitment to education and community outreach.

Bethel also served as the mother church to several AME congregations in Indiana and as a public meeting place in Indianapolis for social activists.

[2][3] Although the congregation continued to expand into larger buildings and extend its outreach programs to the area's African American community, it faced financial challenges throughout its early history.

(The Episcopal parishioners had decided to replace their wood-frame church with a new stone structure on its site on Monument Circle.)

[6][7] It is believed that the AME congregation's open support of the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad, which provided protection to slaves en route to Canada, may have led some pro-slavery advocates to burn the church.

The replacement structure served the congregation until its brick church on West Vermont Street was built in 1868–69.

[1] The church's West Vermont Street site, located in the northwest section of downtown Indianapolis, has historically been the heart of the African American community.

[1][2] In 1867 the congregation contracted with Adam Busch to build a new brick church on its West Vermont Street lot.

[9] Post-World War II development and the declining nearby neighborhood caused the area to change, but the Bethel AME congregation remained in its aging church, which was renovated in 1974 in order to make more space for outreach activities.

Eventually, urban development dominated the surrounding area, which included hotels, apartments, museums, and office space along the Central Canal to the east, north, and south.

Without the major funding needed to proceed with the church repairs, the congregation began considering offers to buy the Vermont Street property.

It is co-branded as Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites and includes a swimming pool, rooftop patio, and other amenity spaces.

[16] The Vermont Street site originally consisted of a three-story church and an adjacent two-story parsonage that connected to the main building by an enclosed passageway.

The church's original brick façade and its main entrance was partially obscured by the 1974 update; however, the building retained many features dating to its construction in 1869 and the renovation in 1894.

[1][17] The three-story church and its square, four-story tower were constructed of red brick over a limestone foundation and contained some Romanesque Revival features.

(This arrangement altered the original plan, which may have placed rows of pews facing an altar located on either the north or south wall.)

[2] Window openings in the sanctuary's south wall were covered over and the related woodwork was removed due to the addition of the false façade on the exterior.

However, as the war progressed, the number of blacks coming to Indianapolis from the South and Indiana's rural areas continued to rise, nearly doubling the state's African American population by 1870, a few years after the Bethel AME church was erected on Vermont Street.

By 1900, shortly after the church underwent a major renovation, African Americans comprised nearly ten percent of the city's population.

[3][5] The Bethel church also became a public meeting place for social activism, as well as a venue for organizing and implementing social services including providing money, clothing, and temporary lodging to African Americans immigrating to the city from the South after the Civil War.

[22] The church also served as a venue for organizing local associations that were instrumental in achieving better housing, education, and equal rights for African Americans.

[3][11][25] During the twentieth century, Bethel AME Church continued to support the city's black community living northwest of the downtown area.

The congregation operated a food pantry, youth and senior citizens programs, and clothing drives, among other activities.

[1] Throughout civil rights activism of the mid-twentieth century, Bethel provided a space of racial solidarity and continued its long tradition of offering community outreach services to the city's African Americans.