‘It’s been a long time coming’: historic Black church getting an upgrade in Salt Lake City

When the historic Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1907 on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Salt Lake City, longtime members say, it was surrounded by open fields.

There was a grocery store (where a gas station now sits) down the block from the tiny Black church, and kids would sneak away to buy candy and take it back to enjoy on the swings next to where members were rocking the building with music.

The steeple on the brick sanctuary was meant to be “a beacon to the city,” said Bettie Wright, one of the church’s oldest members, and the fellowship hall in the basement attracted standing room-only parties, Christmas and Easter pageants and other special occasions.

“We always had the best cooks,” Wright recalled. “The church was packed because people knew they would be fed well.”

Wright was among the members and visitors who filled the church’s pews Monday to celebrate the beginning of a renovation of the Bourdeaux Fellowship Hall (named for a dedicated member), which has been in disuse for a decade.

After the speeches and lively guitar and drum music — including the gospel song “I Am So Satisfied (With My Savior)” — all the dignitaries went outside for the symbolic groundbreaking, lifting shovels full of dirt in front of the church.

“How did we get to this day?” asked the Rev. Daryell Jackson, Trinity’s current minister for dozens of congregants. “It’s been a long time coming. … We are not on our time but on God’s time.”

For a “church to be the church,” it needs more than worship space, Jackson said. It needs a community gathering space.

“This occasion brings me such joy, such delight,” said the Rev. Sheriolyn Curry Hodge, presiding AME elder over the Rocky Mountain region who flew in from Arizona. “We’ve come together to help build and restore this ‘house.’... Let God be God and amazing things can happen.”

“Amens” punctuated her remarks and those of others.

The Rev. Nurjhan Govan, who retired in 2018 after 14 years as Trinity’s pastor, said the renovation effort was launched in 2002 by her immediate predecessor, the Rev. Philis Griffin, who began to raise money for the project.

Now the church at 239 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. has about $435,000 from donors — including Utah’s predominant faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — to help with the project.

“With God at the helm,” said Govan — who has happily retired in Utah with her “children,” four Yorkies — “it will be wonderful and great.”

Another speaker, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, pointed to the eruption of spring in the capital city.

“This is evidence of God’s work outside,” Mendenhall said, “and on the inside is right here.”

May you “continue to bloom and grow,” she told the congregation. “Salt Lake City is better for your existence.”

The mayor said she would be back in 120 days — the project time for the renovation — “to celebrate with you.”

She added: “I’ll bring the cornbread.”