With deed restrictions deemed unconstitutional after 1948, the population of the area continued to diversify with increasing numbers of African Americans and Latinx residents in the 1950s and subsequent decades. In 1952, the original West Adams Methodist congregation, which is believed to have served a primarily white congregation during its time, sold their building to the Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptists, a Black congregation. Although the exact reasons for selling the property remain unknown, given the merger of the West Adams Methodists with another congregation the same year the building was sold, it is likely the West Adams Methodists were in their final life cycle. In contrast, Mt. Sinai Baptist had purchased the subject building to accommodate their rapidly growing congregation.

Beginning in 1952 when Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church occupied the building to the end of founder Bishop L.C. Page’s tenure at Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ in 1980, this church has been an important place of worship, education and cultural growth for African Americans in Los Angeles.

When Reverend H.B. Charles and his congregation arrived in 1952, Mt. Sinai’s pastor was already known as a dynamo in the pulpit and served as the second vice president of Baptist Ministers’ Union, the largest body of ministers west of the Mississippi River. During his tenure at the subject building, Reverend Charles’ leadership on religious and community matters continued to grow.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the church hosted important events that uplifted and sought to address the needs of African Americans in Los Angeles. This included the City’s Negro History Week programs (a precursor to Black History Month), growing the NAACP Los Angeles Chapter, voter registration, and bringing leaders together from various sectors to discuss and find solutions to community problems. On February 28, 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Los Angeles and made three stops at local churches, one of which was organized at Mt. Sinai. Sponsored by the Baptist Ministers Union and the Interdenominational Ministers Alliance, King’s speech was titled “Going Forward by Going Backward,” which called for U.S. leaders to save the soul of America by returning to the principles of brotherhood and freedom. Such activities and events led to important political gains for African Americans in Los Angeles and represent the various ways Black churches and their leaders played an integral role in the Civil Rights Movement.

Bishop L.C. Page

Bishop Lucius Conklin “L.C.” Page, a foundational leader of the Church of God in Christ, purchased the church property in 1964. Like Mt. Sinai who had occupied the building previously, the incoming congregation was also in need of a larger place to worship. This Church of God in Christ congregation would thereafter be known as Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ, ushering in a new chapter of African American religious history in Los Angeles.

Now the largest Pentecostal group in the county and the second largest of all Black Christian denominations in the U.S., the Church of God in Christ was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1907 by then Baptist preacher Charles Harrison Mason, following a visit to Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. On the visit, Mason was said to have been filled with the spirit and reportedly spoke in tongues.

The Church of God in Christ began its ministry in Los Angeles in 1914, led by Overseer Eddie Robert Driver and his wife Mother Annie Driver. Los Angeles would become the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ’s Southern California First Jurisdiction, also referred to as the “Jerusalem” of the Pentecostal Movement. From the 1930s to 1970s, the Church of God in Christ’s First Jurisdiction experienced tremendous growth.

Bishop Page, the longtime pastor of Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ, was among the First Jurisdiction’s foundational leaders. A key driver in the Church of God in Christ’s national and international evangelism mission and agenda, he brought growing numbers of people from across the city, country and world to Pentecostalism. In addition to his weekly Sunday radio programs, a variety of public events and programs held at the church were intended to grow the Church of God in Christ’s ministry in Los Angeles.

Bishop Page had many accomplishments during his tenure as the head of the Department of Evangelism, which include but are not limited to establishing new communication and organizational tools such as The Evangelist Speaks, a monthly national Church of God in Christ publication in 1950, the first “regional” system in the department, the Evangelist Identification card, and the National Evangelist License. In 1972, when the Church of God in Christ’s Board of Evangelism became an official Department of Evangelism according to the church’s constitution, Bishop Page was appointed its first National President. He is noted as the longest serving department leader in the Church of God in Christ. A trusted counselor to other African American clergy and lay leaders in Los Angeles, irrespective of religious denomination, Bishop Page passed away on October 29, 1980.

Late Gothic Revival Architecture

The subject property is an excellent example of Late Gothic Revival architectural style applied to an ecclesiastical building. It features many Gothic Revival elements such as tapered buttresses, a steep cross-gable roof, a tower, and pointed arches. Additional Gothic ornaments include two contrasting tones of masonry and stained glass windows. Gothic Revival elements are found throughout the interior, which includes a large tracery window in the main sanctuary, a vaulted ceiling, and arched doorways. The interior is finished in oak, adding to the rich feeling of a Gothic Revival church building. Though some alterations have been made over the years to accommodate multiple congregations’ needs, the subject building remains largely intact and retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance.