By Amarynth Ruch
This February, I spent most of the month researching the history and heritage of Tacony’s Black communities. It was my intention to write one article for Black History Month; highlighting the stories of the African American families who helped to shape the Tacony that we know today. But as it turns out, there are a lot more untold stories than I set out to find. Instead, this month I will tell one story - the history of the Star of Hope Baptist Church - and make it my mission to keep researching, keep interviewing, and keep writing. Tacony’s Black community has been underrepresented in our tales of the neighborhood’s history. Please allow me the time to speak to the people that can help me correct that.
World War I and the Labor Shortage
Star of Hope Baptist Church dates its origins back to World War I. Although the United States did not engage in conflict until 1917, the onset of a war meant that factories like the Disston Saw Works were called upon to increase the production of war-supplies and send them to Europe. This, paired with a sudden halt of immigration from European countries, meant that the Disston factory found itself with an increasing demand for labor and without its usual source of cheap new employees–European immigrants.
Like many factories, the Disston Saw Works turned to a new source of labor and began recruiting from Southern Black communities. Tacony was just one of the Northern neighborhoods that became home to more than 6 million African Americans who moved from the rural South between 1910 and 1970 in what is known as “The Great Migration.” A few people traveled here at the start of that migration, mostly single men coming for work, but the Star of Hope congregation attributes most of its early membership to several families who came from Rice, Virginia at the request of a Mr. Floyd T. Booker in 1916.
Starting a Baptist Church
Many of the people of Virginia who settled in Tacony had strong backgrounds in the Baptist religion and wished to continue their worship. The first regular prayer services were held in the home of Mrs. Vienna Pierce at Knorr and Wissinoming Streets. They were led by Deacon Samuel Rice. The popularity of these services grew, and they began meeting in other homes, starting with the Reverend Henry Haskins at Disston and Wissinoming Streets.
In 1917, the congregation purchased a storefront at 6912 State Road. Based on applications for liquor licenses, the building was originally built to be a saloon and later converted into a residence. Today, that building has been demolished and there is a garage at that address.
With the help of Reverend Tryon from the Tacony Baptist Church, the congregation voted Reverend John E. Philpot as its first pastor. Mrs. Mary Rice, who was married to Deacon Samuel Rice, suggested the name Star of Hope Baptist Church as a tribute to the trials leading up to the church’s existence. The first officers of the church were:
Deacon Samuel Rice, Chairman of the Deacon Board
Mr. Samuel Vaughan, Chairman of the Trustee Board
Mr. Garfield Rice, Treasurer
Mrs. Martha Burke, Superintendent of Sunday School
Mr. Floyd Booker, Church Clerk
Mrs. Hattie Shelton, Organist
Mr. Charles Coleman, Choir Director.
In 1918, the congregation purchased a former elementary school at the intersection of Wissinoming and Disston Streets for $4,000 (about $84,151.26 today). The following pastors served at this location:
Rev. John E. Philpot (1917)
Rev. Charles Coleman (1920)
Rev. John E. Philpot (1928)
Rev. J.H. Massey (1929)
Rev. Thomas H. Washington (1933)
Rev. J.H. Marshall (1937)
Rev. Fletcher L. Patterson 1941
Rev. G.H. Mills (1947)
Rev. George N. Kenner (1949)
Rev. James Phillip Thompson (1959)
Displacement and Re-Construction
In 1956, the United States government passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, approving a huge budget for the construction of interstate highway 95 which would connect the East Coast of the country from Florida to Main. Construction on the Delaware Expressway (the portion of I-95 which runs through Philadelphia) began in 1959. To the communities like the Star of Hope Baptist Church congregation, the anticipated construction meant it was time to move.
Through Eminent Domain, a process in which the government can take over private property for public use, thousands of communities up and down the coastline were forced to move. In Philadelphia, that meant that the areas along the Delaware River that housed mostly Black families and their cultural centers felt a significant impact throughout the 1960s. The Star of Hope congregation purchased the site of their future home at Friendship and Hegerman Streets in 1961 and hosted a groundbreaking ceremony that October.
For a period of 10 months, church members worshipped on the second floor of the Tacony Trust Company building located at Longshore and Tulip Streets, known at that point in time as Union Hall. Reverend James Thompson, pastor at the time, was struck ill before the congregation moved into the newly completed building in the Fall of 1962. Likely in the hopes that Reverend Thompson would recover, the congregation delayed its cornerstone-laying ceremony until June, 1963. Rev. S. I. Spear, president of the Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Philadelphia and its Vicinity, was asked to speak at the ceremony in his stead. Reverend James Thompson passed away in August, 1963. He was only thirty-nine.
At the time of its completion, Star of Hope at Friendship and Hegerman was the first Black congregation in Philadelphia to completely erect a church from ground up in more than fifty years. The Star of Hope Baptist Church was incorporated by the State of Pennsylvania and chartered by the City of Philadelphia in 1963. The officers were:
Deacon Paul Vaughn, Chairman of the Board of Directors’
Trustee Wallace Randolph
Mrs. Vivian M. Whitmore, Secretary
Trustee Manuel Fisher, Treasurer.
The following Pastors have served the congregation in the years since moving to Friendship and Hegerman Streets:
Rev. William B. Glenn (1964)
Rev. Joseph Fuller, Jr. (1968)
Rev. Samuel B. Adkins (1976)
Rev. Dr. Hubert B. Barnes (1986)
Rev. William E. Bounds, Assist.
Reverend Dr. Hubert B. Barnes, who has been pastor of the Star of Hope Baptist Church for 39 years, takes great pride in the history of his congregation and its tradition of service to the greater Northeast community. He has been instrumental in helping me to put this short history together, and I will continue to work with him and his congregation to discover more about the rich history of Tacony’s Black community. Today, Star of Hope holds services at 10 AM every Sunday in their building located on the corner of Friendship and Hegerman Streets. You can learn more about the Star of Hope Baptist Church at https://www.starofhopebc.org/.
Sources
In Motion: The African American Migration Experience, “The Great Migration”, https://www.inmotionaame.org/print.cfm@migration=8.html#:~:text=The%20cessation%20of%20immigration%2....
Romney, J. P. “Your City Defined: I-95 (A Troubled History).” The Philadelphia Citizen. June 22, 2023, https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/your-city-defined-i-95-a-troubled-history/.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Died: Hamel (Fisher),” May 19, 1916.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, “License Court Hears 80 Applications,” January 14, 1904.
The Philadelphia Times, “38 Licenses Said to be Decided on,” April 19, 1902.
The Philadelphia Times, “Applications for Retail Liquor License,” February 14, 1894.
The Philadelphia Times, “Applications for Retail Liquor License,” February 14, 1901.
The Philadelphia Times, “Two Wards to Hear Yet,” April 19, 1893.
The Philadelphia Tribune, “Local Church News: Women’s Day Goal of $8000 Achieved,” December 8, 1962
The Philadelphia Tribune, “Star of Hope Pastor Dead at Age 39,” August 24, 1963.
The Philadelphia Tribune, “Two Churches Observe Cornerstone-Layings,” July 6, 1963.
Starofhopebc.org, “About Us: Star of Hope Baptist Church History.” https://www.starofhopebc.org/about-us
Susaneck, Adam Paul. “Segregation by Design.” TU Delft Centre for the Just City, 2024. https://www.segregationbydesign.com/
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