Sunday School recorded 117 scholars and 200 books in the church library. By 1864 Roberts Memorial Methodist Chapel was no longer a mission church under the supervision of Trinity; they had become an independent African American parish within the national Methodist hierarchy. Reconstruction and Beyond The school at Roberts Chapel was encouraged to reopen in 1862 when the city was occupied by Federal troops during the Civil War. Permission to reopen the school first had to be obtained from the provost marshal for the city. Once permission was received, church members opened a school in the church as well as a Sunday school and a secular schoolhouse in the neighborhood. As public schools in the city were established for both Blacks and whites in the 1880s, the educational work of the church was limited to the Sunday School. In the late 19th century, Roberts Chapel established a mission, Woodlawn Church in Woodlawn, Virginia, supplying it with preachers until it could support a pastor of its own. The two churches continued to have annual re-unions for a number of years. As the church continued to grow in the decades following the Civil War, the leaders looked for more space to host their activities. In the 1920s they bought the old Paff Shoe Factory just north of the church, on the corner of Washington and Gibbons Streets. This became the Roberts Chapel Community building, an important site used to host church and community activities during the years of segregation. During the Depression the church found itself unable to maintain the property, and ownership of the building was relinquished. Building Roberts Memorial United Methodist Church is a two-story, brick, vernacular Gothic Revival structure. Constructed in 1834, it is located south of King Street in the 600 block of South Washington Street, sandwiched between the historic Black neighborhoods of ‘the Bottoms’ and ‘Hayti’. 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. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Notes Citations References External links Official website National Register of Historic Places listings in Alexandria, Virginia Courageous Journey Churches completed in 1834 African Methodist