The Soul of Sandy Ground: Rossville AME Zion Church for almost 2 centuries

https://www.silive.com/news/2023/02/the-soul-of-sandy-ground-rossville-ame-zion-church-has-been-the-hub-of-the-historic-community-for-almost-2-centuries.html

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For decades, Sundays at Sandy Ground have always been respectfully reserved for family and for faith. Gathering in a small clapboard church on Bloomingdale Rd., dressed in suit-and-tie, dress-and-hat, the faithful devote more than two hours to God, before gathering to socialize with aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

There’s plenty of preparation for this weekly event: Shoes are shined on Saturday nights; clothing is pressed and prepared for the morning. And the food (oh, the food), is cooked with love and thoughtfully packaged for sharing.

But for the past three years, the pews of Rossville AME Zion Church have been empty, the choir silent and those family gatherings on pause. Instead of vibrant weekly worship, the Rev. Jacqueline Nolton reads the scripture and delivers her homily via Zoom. Beleaguered by the pandemic and plagued by structural issues, this church is not what it used to be.

“We certainly have our challenges,” Rev. Nolton said recently after arriving at her church for Sunday services only to learn the building was without heat. “But together, with God, we can move past them.”

The landmarked building, which has been the center of the Sandy Ground community since 1897, reopened on Dec. 1 after a 35-month COVID-19 pause, and its now-hybrid services are building momentum.

“We have an aging membership, so this hybrid form of gathering works for us,” noted Janise Laboard-Casimir, Church historian, who at 41, is among Rossville’s youngest leaders. “Zoom church can never replace the in-person experience but Rev. Nolton is just as powerful on the laptop as she is in real life. We may only have 10 people in the pews, but there’s descendants online now. And they live in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and beyond. Say what you will about the pandemic, it definitely changed us – wounded us – but I think it made us stronger at the same time.”

Calling the pandemic challenge a “unifying moment” in the church’s history, Laboard-Casimir says COVID-19 reinforced the fact that Rossville AME – and its role as a tangible and visible link to the rich history of the Sandy Ground community — needs to be preserved.

“We have to preserve the history, because if we don’t, I worry that it will disappear,” the historian said. “Whatever we have to do to keep the lights and heat on, we’ll do it. Our funding comes from the congregation, from the weekly offerings. COVID took that away from us for a time, but we prayed that God would make a way and he did.”

Founded in May of 1849 by Virginia-born African Methodist Episcopal Zion minister William H. Pitt, Rossville AME Zion Church has been the heart of the Sandy Ground community for close to two centuries. In the early years, Pitt hosted prayer services in his home before the congregation purchased land on Crabtree Lane in 1852. According to documents from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, church members erected a no longer extant church building there, dedicated in 1854, and established the Rossville AME Zion Church Cemetery, which is now a designated New York City Landmark. By 1890 the congregation had outgrown that first church and purchased property at 584 Bloomingdale Road – where the church currently exists.

Constructed in 1897 by Tottenville builder-developer Andrew Abrams, the present building still maintains its original vernacular frame structure, fenestration window pattern and gabled porch, but was reclad at some point in time with faux brick siding. Dubbed a “rare and important surviving building from the period when Sandy Ground was a prosperous African-American community on Staten Island,” by the Preservation Commission, the church was designated a city landmark in 2010.

There’s history in every corner of the building – its steadfast resilience underscored by an inspiring list of prominent ministers who have preached and served there: Famed abolitionist and civil rights leader Thomas James led the church in 1872, Rev. Isaac Burk Walters served from 1906 to 1907, and the renowned minister, missionary, and suffragist Florence Spearing Randolph was at the helm from 1919 until 1922. Most recently the Rev. Janet Jones served from 2003 to 2019, further cementing Rossville’s place in the community.

“When I first came here I found a community of people who had a proud heritage and loved to talk about it,” Rev. Jones said in a short documentary that was recently made about the church and posted to Rossville AME’s YouTube channel. “For me, the importance of this congregation is that it stands as a beacon. It was founded in the midst of a time in our nation when slavery was the order of the day. But there were free African-Americans who came here and established a home, established a community. They built businesses, they had a school….and this church was built to be the center of that community.”

Sandy Ground (first known as Harrisville, Africa and Little Africa), is considered the nation’s oldest free Black settlement, which began to populate in the 1850s when African-American oystermen from Maryland were attracted to the area because of the abundant oyster beds of the Raritan Bay. Soon, Sandy Ground became a community where African-Americans found prosperity and freedom from persecution.

“Looking back during enslavement, Blacks were not able to really have any power in the community, but they found a voice in their religious organizations,” noted Yvette Jordan, a seventh-generation descendant of Sandy Ground who currently serves as chair of the church’s trustee board and chair of Christian education. “Rossville AME was always the centerpiece of the Sandy Ground community — the hub and the heartbeat — because the power that people were looking for was not found in the general population. It was, however, found it in the church.”

Jordan explained how at Rossville AME Sandy Ground residents served as deacons, stewards trustees and ministers.

“They could speak and hold the cadre of the people in the palm of their hand,” she said. “And socially, there was an opportunity here to congregate in a free and open space.”

The church, which owns two nearby cottages — one which is rented and the other in very poor condition – recently secured a $10,000 grant from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to repair the structures. The Washington D.C.-based Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a non-profit which helps draw attention to cultural landscapes that are threatened, says the church will be partnering with the YouthBuild organization to gut one of the cottages in preparation for its future renovation.

“They’re hoping to secure additional grants to address the adjacent landscape and condition of the cemetery,” a TCLF spokesperson said.

And many church members are also fighting to keep Rossville AME Zion’s vibrancy alive.

“Rossville AME is the soul of Sandy Ground,” noted Lucille Hazel Herring, past president of the Sandy Ground Historical Society, and a newly appointed trustee for the Rossville AME Zion Church. Herring is also the granddaughter of Pop Pedro, who was an important figure in the history of the church.

The church, which owns two nearby cottages — one which is rented and the other in very poor condition – recently secured a $10,000 grant from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to repair the structures. The Washington D.C.-based Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), a non-profit which helps draw attention to cultural landscapes that are threatened, says the church will be partnering with the YouthBuild organization to gut one of the cottages in preparation for its future renovation.

“They’re hoping to secure additional grants to address the adjacent landscape and condition of the cemetery,” a TCLF spokesperson said.

And many church members are also fighting to keep Rossville AME Zion’s vibrancy alive.

“Rossville AME is the soul of Sandy Ground,” noted Lucille Hazel Herring, past president of the Sandy Ground Historical Society, and a newly appointed trustee for the Rossville AME Zion Church. Herring is also the granddaughter of Pop Pedro, who was an important figure in the history of the church.

“He lived to be 106 and until the day he died he was devoted to Sandy Ground and Rossville AME,” Herring said. “We have to keep the vibrance alive and make sure the church continues to exist for years to come.”

Huguenot resident Debra Santulli-Barone, an Italian Roman Catholic who has been attending the church for 24 years, calls Rossville AME Zion a “blessing,” for those both in and outside of the Black community.

“I felt spirituality here for the first time in my life,” Santulli-Barone said of her first experiences with the church. “The love and the warmth is palpable at Rossville AME. Members welcomed us, made my son an usher, and lifted me up in prayer when I found out that I had cancer. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, what matters is the presence of God in your life. This church is a blessing.”

Janise Laboard-Casimir has faith that in time, that blessing will be restored to its full glory.

“It may sound cliché, but I truly believe that whatever God has planned for us will happen,” she concluded. “We are a faithful congregation; we do our best and everybody is a part of making this church work. We all are stakeholders in its future, and we will come together to do what we have to do.”