In 1889 Congregationalists living in the neighborhood east of Lincoln Square began organizing for the creation of a new church. Initially, they formed a Sunday school with 28 members. In June 1889 Rev. Albert Bryant resigned as superintendent of the City Missionary Society to serve as pastor of the new enterprise. On July 14, 1889, a lot was purchased at the corner of Belmont and Hanover [later Clayton] Streets, and ground was broken for the new church. The structure was completed in 1890 with seating for 500 worshippers. A vestry, kitchen, and function rooms were provided for in the basement. The congregation, however, was dwindling.
In 1902 structure became the third home of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which by the turn of the century had become surrounded by industrial and commercial buildings at its earlier location near the corner of Union and Exchange Street. A.M.E. Zion was the oldest of five places of worship at that time serving the 1,241 “Negroes” in a Worcester of almost 146,000 residents.
While a ‘cluster’ of African American families had been living in the Exchange Street area near the original church as early as the 1840s, another community began forming near the new A.M.E. Zion Church at Belmont & Clayton Streets. Near the newer location, families of color began living among the then Swedish, Swede-Finnish, and Armenian occupants of the East Side of Worcester. For example, the first Armenian Apostolic Church in the Americas was located on upper Laurel Street, and what became the largest apartment block occupied by people of color in the neighborhood was originally the Swedish Mercantile Cooperative.
For decades through the 1960s, the much-beloved pastor of A.M.E. Zion and community leader was Rev. John A. Stringfield. In this Laurel Clayton neighborhood, African Americans created a variety of social services institutions associated with churches and men’s and women’s social organizations like the Elks, Masons, Tripods & Odd Fellows and supported activities like operation of a senior citizens residence, a drum corps and various athletic groups. Several individuals operated businesses in the area. At the same time many Laurel Clayton residents were active in city politics, some blacks Democrats, others Republican, African American Charles E. Scott, for many years representing the area on the Worcester City Council.
Between World War I and its destruction in 1959 as part of urban renewal, Zion Church was an important factor in the lives of the several hundred families of color who would come to live in the Laurel Clayton neighborhood.