Ashberry AME, St. Mark's AME and Second Baptist

South facing elevation, Ashberry AME

I went out this morning with the idea in mind of finding Ashberry AME--one of the 1899 churches, and I did.  But, I also found that Ashberry AME, St. Mark's AME and Second Baptist are in a triangle and roughly within the same city block.  Obviously, at one time this area had a thriving African American population, but today many of the lots are empty, the houses torn down and the remaining houses are mostly shuttered.  The neighborhood is in the  lowlands directly to the north of the Kansas river, therefore it is in the floodzone and flood insurance has become prohibitively expensive.  But, none-the-less, 2 of the 3 churches still have active congregations.  The third church and obviously the oldest, Ashberry has been repurposed by Nathan Hamm into a high end photography studio. Kuddos to Nathan, he did this before  it was cool and he save the building from demolition and has done a fantastic job which is not obvious from the exterior.  (Also, another wormhole, what is the significance of the name Ashberry--in CA there is the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, and there are others...)

West facing elevation of Ashberry AME