In 1834 these first lots were sold and a new property acquired for $350 on South Washington Street, sandwiched between the established Black neighborhoods of ‘the Bottoms’ and ‘Hayti’.

It was only in a self-segregating community of faith, away from whites, that they had the freedom to nurture their distinctive voice and to train their own members in positions of leadership and responsibility.

[6] The church building on South Washington St. was completed in 1834 and developed rapidly into an important meeting place for the Black neighborhoods that surrounded it.

The church also held secular classes to teach basic literacy skills: reading, writing, arithmetic.

Federal troops occupied Alexandria at the start of the Civil War in 1861, making the restrictive Virginia laws concerning African Americans mute.

[13] The school at Roberts Chapel was encouraged to reopen in 1862 when the city was occupied by Federal troops during the Civil War.

[14] As the church continued to grow in the decades following the Civil War, the leaders looked for more space to host their activities.

[15] Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church is a two-story, brick, vernacular Gothic Revival structure.

The church fronts South Washington Street to the west, with an ornate facade of decorative brick and stained-glass windows.

Although the present narthex, façade and most of the stained glass were added during extensive remodeling in 1894, the side walls of the 1834 building remain, and include the original window openings and denticulated brick cornices.