Oakland's Oldest Black Church Finds Temporary Downtown Home After Devastating Fire

Months after a devastating fire all but demolished Oakland’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME), the congregation of some 200 members has found a new temporary home at a community events space in an iconic downtown office building.

FAME Pastor Rodney D. Smith is planning to hold services at the new site this Sunday — at 10 a.m. — after previously sharing worship space with Temple Beth Abraham synagogue near Lake Merritt. Smith, 48, became the senior pastor for FAME in October 2020 and said he is optimistic about the new, centrally located facility.

“One of our members had a connection,” he said. “So it was a great opportunity for FAME, being the oldest African American church in the East Bay, to come and have worship in the community center.”

The community space, located on the ground floor of the Uptown Station office building at 1955 Broadway, is operated by Block Inc., a financial services tech company that leases shared offices in the building. Last year, the firm began allowing nonprofits to use the space for free, and more than 50 local groups have hosted events there since then.

The congregation was deciding among several temporary sites in Oakland, but ultimately landed at Uptown Station in large part because of its proximity to FAME’s permanent location, on Telegraph Avenue at 37th Street, where much of its community is from, said Smith.

“We are excited about being here because our members need to feel some sense of home, even though the physical building is burned,” said Smith, as he walked through the large, still-vacant space on a recent morning. “Just being in this community is encouraging.”

Smith expects to use the space for at least the next six months, and estimates it will be years before FAME returns to its fully restored permanent home.

In the meantime, the congregation has resumed its food pantry program, which it now runs out of the kitchen facilities at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church in Oakland’s Mosswood neighborhood.

The three-alarm fire that gutted FAME’s 165-year-old church on Feb. 19 is still under investigation.

“At this point, all we know now is witness statements from the community members and fire crews placed at least one male with a sleeping bag or bedding very near the area of origin prior to the fire starting,” said Michael Hunt, spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department, noting that the blaze originated on the south side of the church outside a decommissioned electrical closet.

“However, we deemed [this incident] to be accidental in nature and not a situation where this fire was intentionally set,” he said. “It was likely a warming fire that ultimately spread and tragically claimed the bulk of the church.”

Smith hopes that people will continue to donate to the church’s rebuilding fund through its GoFundMe page, which is still far short of its $1 million goal. He said he also plans to eventually launch a capital campaign to raise the substantial funds needed to rebuild the church.

Founded in 1858 by a small group of Black residents, the church, originally named Shiloh African Methodist Episcopal Church, ran one of Oakland’s first schools for children of color at a time when only white children were allowed to attend public schools in California. In 1954, under the leadership of Rev. H. Solomon Hill, the church, which had been on 5th Street, moved uptown and changed its name.

“FAME is a historical landmark of this city,” Smith said. “We want the Board of Education, City Hall and other community leaders to stay with us to pull the resources together … because of that rich history.”