1879
George M. Pullman purchases 4,000 acres of land south of Chicago - only 600 acres were used for building the factories and the first American model industrial town of Pullman, Illinois. 
Solon Spencer Beman, only 27 years old at the time, was hired as the architect for the town and Nathan F. Barrett, the landscape architect.

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church professes the historical faith in God, who by Himself – outpouring, was manifest incarnate in Jesus Christ for our salvation. By God’s grace and the power of His Holy Spirit all believers become the new humanity. The incarnation having reached its completion in Jesus, who is the Christ, is continuing in the Church and is overcoming the calamity of the human predicament. We strive in the hope that the Church will grow from sinful existence through purification to oneness with God.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has rejected the negative theological interpretations which rendered persons of African descent second class citizens. This church was founded on the strong belief that God is God all the time and for every body. The church was born in protest against slavery. The Mission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is to minister to the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental and physical needs of all people by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through both word and deed. African Methodist Episcopal Churches engage in carrying out the purpose of the original Free African Society, out of which the AME Church evolved: which is, to seek out and save the lost, and to serve the needy. Thanks for using ChurchAngel.com - the ultimate church finder! more...

In 1963, Brother Syd Finley made an informal appeal to Bishop Joseph Gomez, the then presiding prelate, to establish an African Methodist Episcopal Church in DuPage County. His daughter was getting married and there was no AME Church to host the wedding in the county. It was not until some years later, under the leadership of Bishop Hubert Nelson Robinson that a formal plea was made before the Chicago Annual Conference of the AME Church. On Wednesday, September 12, 1979, Syd and Mary Lou Finley and community leader Ernest Gibson, made a plea and had a private meeting with Bishop Robinson where an organizational and financial support process for a church was established. On Sunday, September 16, 1979, at the closing of the Chicago Annual Conference, Bishop Robinson appointed Reverend Donald Harwell to organize the mission church.