Mt. Zion AME Church, Andrews

This church was founded in 1867 on land donated by Moses and Matilda Watson.  It was the first African American church in the Bloomingvale community and was organized by trustees Orange Bruorton, Augusta Dicker, Sr., Fred Grant, Esau Green, Fortune Session, Moses Watson, and Richmond White.  It was also mother church to Bruorton Chapel AME Church, active until the 1950s. Mt. Zion also sponsored Mt. Zion School, which closed in 1958. The first sanctuary here, a wood frame church, was replaced in the early 1920s by a second wood frame church built by carpenter Rev. W.C. Ervin, Sr. The present church, the third serving Mt. Zion, was built 1948-1954 by carpenter Rev. W.C. Ervin, Jr.  It was covered in brick veneer in the late 1950s.

KEYWORDS: AME, BLOOMINGVALE, ANDREWS, WILLIAMSBURG COUNTY, BRUORTON CHAPEL