23 Feb 2026 February’s Office Artifact: Architectural Rendering of St. James African Orthodox Church
This month, we give you a 2020 architectural drawing of a past HBI project, the St. James African Orthodox Church in Roxbury!
This drawing was included in a 2020 permit set compiled by architectural firms Hacin and Wessling Arhcitects. When HBI sold the church to the Roxbury Action Program (RAP) in 2023, they kept Hacin and Wessling on for their redevelopment team.
The African Orthodox Church (AOC) at 50 Cedar Street is a Boston landmark for its connection to Marcus Garvey’s movement and larger Pan-Africanism of the mid-20th century. Originally built in 1910 for a Norwegian Evangelical congregation, the church changed hands to the African Orthodox Church in 1955. Founder of the AOC was George A. Maguire, who had served as Chaplain General to the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the early 1920s. Both the UNIA and the AOC were part of the larger Pan-Africanism movement that sought to bring the diverse communities of Black African peoples together against societal oppression. The purpose of the AOC was to cast off White Ecclesiastical dominance and embrace the religious autonomy of the Black community, recognizing that Black peoples were made in God’s image and deserved their own religious iconography.
Today, the Roxbury Action Program is working to make the African Orthodox Church at 50 Cedar Street a pillar of the Roxbury neighborhood once more, while ensuring this precious history remains preserved.
Happy Black History Month!