Bishop of the M. E. Church, John H. Griffin
built the edifice which is today used by the Ebenezer Church. This
church was later served by W. T. Harris, E. W. S. Peck, and more
recently by the efficient S. H. Brown and W. H. Dean, who did much to
promote the religious life and expand the work of the present
flourishing congregation now under the direction of J. W. Waters.

[4] From records preserved by Miss H. H. Beason.

[5] The time for radical changes was approaching when the political
discussions of the time were affecting Washington and all elements of
its population. It was not until the Civil War was in its third year
that Mt. Zion felt the change, and this was by the organization of the
Washington Annual M. E. Conference in 1864. Had it not been effected
at this time, it is doubtful if the M. E. Church would have been able
to make much headway in Virginia with the Negro members who up to that
time were counted a part of the M. E. South, worshipping in the same
edifice as the whites and under such conditions as to give rise to
little or no friction. The Civil War was in its last year, and there
had been no opportunity before this time for the M. E. Church to
secure Negro members to any extent. The A. M. E. Church, moreover, had
already got a foothold in Norfolk and Portsmouth where the Union
armies had triumphed, as early as 1862, and in 1865 the A. M. E. Zion
Church secured a large following with valuable property in Petersburg.

Bishop Levi Scott, who organized the Washington Conference, was not
concerned primarily for such churches in Baltimore as Sharp Street,
Asbury, and Mt. Zion in Washington, but he was looking beyond the
Potomac. At any rate he organized with four members and in 1864 sent
to Mt. Zion Rev. John H. Brice, who thus became their first Negro
pastor. Mt. Zion then had a membership of 317. Rev. Mr. Brice was
reappointed in 1865. He was succeeded in 1866 by Rev. N. W. Carroll,
whose career as an aggressive minister is that of one of the very
first in his denomination. Rev. Mr. Carroll served three years and was
an elder when his successor, Rev. Henry R. Elbert, was appointed in
1869.

Following Mr. Elbert came Rev. G. T. Pinkney, under whose
administration the planning of a new structure first took form, and
$1,500 for the purpose was deposited in the Freedmen's Bank. Rev. Mr.
Pinkney was succeeded by Rev. George Lewis, who raised $1,600 for the
building fund. Then came the Rev. Benjamin Brow