In 1868, Portsmouth's African Methodist Episcopal Church purchased what was then known as Spencer Chapel on Seventh Street. This church structure had originally been built in 1853 by the city’s German Methodist Society and was named for Rev. R. A. Spencer, who had donated the lot to the Society. In 1870, this was the location of Portsmouth’s celebration of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. AME church members would worship here for another fifty years, until 1920, when the congregation moved into their current house of worship at the corner of Twelfth and Waller Streets.