By November 1838, at the time of only 35 members, nine of them petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to grant them papers to incorporate the Church as the First African Methodist Episcopal Bethel Society of Boston.

In July 1843 they received their first permanent pastor, Reverend Henry J. Johnson and in May 1844, the Church purchased a building on Anderson Street, Beacon Hill, where it stayed until 1876.

During pre-Civil War, the congregation's service took place here and was home to many abolitionist meetings where William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Philips, Frederick Douglass, and others spoke in order to raise money for the anti-slavery cause.

Because of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and the increasing number of Irish immigrants getting jobs over blacks in the community, church membership decreased and because of the purchase of a new location, their bills were out of control.

It is now located at 551 Warren Street and its surrounding neighborhoods feature 19th century suburban characteristics with blocks of Mansard, Queen Anne, and later Victorian single and double houses on small city lots.

Other individuals important in the construction of the Church include Alfred Bright as mason, and Melzar W. Allen as carpenter.

John LaFarge, a 19th-century American stained glass maker designed windows here and also at Trinity Church in Boston.

Important furnishings include the East Howard Tower clock with two dials, the bell cast by Henry McShane and Company of Baltimore, MD, Hook and Hastings organ (disassembled now), and the “eagle lectern” carved by Kirchmeyer from cypress wood, which is no longer in the church.