SDG #9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

About the Sponsor

University Lodge No. 51 is a lodge of Freemasons in the City of Philadelphia that meets at the historic Philadelphia Masonic Temple right next to City Hall and Arch Street Methodist Church.  True to our roots, we attract a fair number of university students and alumni from the various schools in the area; however, the Lodge is made up of a diverse group of men ranging from eighteen to eighty-five years old and coming from all walks of life.

Lodge No. 51 was formed in 1791 at the Free Quaker Meeting House located at Fifth & Arch Streets.  This was the Meeting House for those members of the Religious Society of Friends (a.k.a. the Quakers) who became known as the “Free Quakers” or “Fighting Quakers” because they chose to take up arms against the British in the American War of Independence. (Quakers are traditionally strict pacifists.)  

About the Grantee

Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a striking Romanesque structure that embodies more than a century of African American faith, resistance, and community. The current building designed by architects William S. Huckel and Edward Hazlehurst in 1889 is the fourth to occupy a site that has been owned by African Americans since 1791—making it the longest continuously Black-owned parcel of land in the United States. The church's roots trace back to Bishop Richard Allen, a formerly enslaved man who founded the congregation in 1794 after leading a protest against racial segregation in a white Methodist church. Allen not only established Mother Bethel but also founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, becoming its first bishop and building a network of Black African Methodist congregations across the region.

Throughout its history, Mother Bethel has served as a beacon of spiritual leadership and social justice. It hosted the first national convention of free Black leaders in 1830, played a role in the Underground Railroad, and stood as a focal point during the Civil Rights Movement. The church’s legacy of activism also inspired the creation of the African American Museum in Philadelphia in 1976. Today, Mother Bethel remains an enduring monument to the power of faith in the fight for equality and freedom. It is also the home of the Richard Allen Museum.