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Faith seems to be present in a very physical way along Frankford Avenue.
There are 25 churches along the mile-and-a-half stretch of Frankford between Pratt Street and Adams Avenue, and not all are in the big, historic buildings like the 166-year-old Frankford Presbyterian, which you can see from the elevated Church Street transit center. In repurposed storefronts, former homes and old school buildings, people worship in Northeast Philadelphia.
But outside their doors, many Frankford residents deal with poverty and violence.
Of the roughly 21,000 people who live in Frankford, 31% live below the poverty line. Frankford sits within the 15th Police District, which has recorded 724 violent crimes this year, the second-most among the city’s police districts.
Michael Jeffcoat sits in a lawn chair with two poster boards almost every day on Frankford Avenue. He is directly across from the now closed Calvary Church, and a block away from both Frankford Community Church and Come As You Are Community Church.
One poster board is propped up on his vendor stand and has information on gun violence and other resources in Frankford; the other has faces and names. As we talk, he pauses to let things quiet down as the El train passes.
“We got my cousin here got caught up with the wrong people,” Jeffcoat said, pointing a finger at the face of a man on his board. “Got shot right on Orthodox (Street), standing on the corner.”
Jeffcoat calls a lot of people in Frankford his family. A group of young men who gathered as we spoke called him their uncle or their “OG.”
Whenever someone dies, whether it be by car accident or shooting, he adds their face and the reason for their death to his board so that people know what happened to them when they stop seeing them on the street. Jeffcoat’s board has two sides, one for men and one for women, and stands about 5 feet tall.
Jeffcoat calls himself “a man of God.” He first became religious while in jail and now helps out whenever he can with his church’s counseling and food pantry.
In his 40 years in Frankford, he’s seen the area change. Jeffcoat can remember days when people hung lights along the El route for the holidays and when Frankford was a major shopping area.
“Now Frankford’s looking like a ghost town,” said Jeffcoat. “No one wants to be here because of the violence.”
Saturdays and Tuesdays at church
Two blocks east of Frankford Avenue down Unity Road, is Mizpah Seventh Day Adventist Church. Their brick building is just over 120 years old and was originally built for Frankford Baptist Church, which closed in the early 1980s. Mizpah has been based there for roughly 30 years.
Saturday worship at the church is quiet, hosting around 25 people, but every Tuesday morning a line of over 100 people forms around the building for the church’s food giveaway.
Vernessa Wilson, Mizpah’s pantry coordinator, said she’s seen people out as early as 2 a.m. to get food.
The food giveaway allows attendees to pick up clothes, fruits and vegetables, nonperishables and some meats. Food donations come from Philabundance, Share Food Program, BJ’s, Costco, Wegmans, KFC and others. Wilson also said Walmart sometimes donates appliances like dishwashers and microwaves to the church.
Just a three-minute walk away from Mizpah, Campbell AME Church offers a Wednesday food pickup. Across the street from Campbell AME, St. Marks Church has weekly community meals and a Thursday and Friday food giveaway. A flyer on the HACE (Hispanic Association of Contractors & Enterprises) Frankford building advertised one to six different church- or nonprofit-driven food drives every day of the week in Frankford. Wilson said church leaders met earlier to decide which day their food pickup would fall on so people had options every day.
On a recent Tuesday, Christine Griffin waited to get food and clothes for her grandchildren at Mizpah.
In 2020, Griffin had a brain aneurysm that causes chronic pain and exhaustion, so she’s unable to work. When she moved into a new home, a church donated a table to help furnish the space.
History and help
The Frankford Presbyterian Church congregation first met in 1770 as a German Reformed congregation and became Presbyterian in 1807. During the Revolutionary War, the church’s original building was used as a prison to hold German soldiers enlisted by the British. The site was rebuilt with smooth pink stucco in 1860 and designed by John McArthur Jr., who’d later design Philadelphia City Hall.
When Frankford grew into an industrial center in the 1800s, immigrant workers and free Black residents established churches to reflect the neighborhood’s mix of ethnic and religious communities. This left the area, with an unusually dense collection of historic churches still standing today.
Roughly 20 churches in Frankford are over 100 years old, according to Gail McCormick, a Historical Society of Frankford board member. The retired librarian and archivist works with Philadelphia Historical Commission preservation planner Kristin Hankins to research historic churches, connect congregations with preservation resources and guide projects such as historic designation, archives and community programming.
“These places are key to food distribution and clothing distribution,” said McCormick. “That is their historical role. Many of these churches welcomed our interest in their history, because many of them have felt that that hasn’t been at the forefront.”
Still, not all churches in Frankford are hundreds of years old and under the protection of McCormick and Hankins.
Grace City Church of Frankford opened in 2018 in a former storefront on Frankford Avenue. Unlike traditional churches with stained glass or ancient stone, its first-floor facade features clear glass, resembling a local corner store or barbershop. The building’s upper floors have been converted from apartments into classrooms and offices.
Pastor Stephen Bowne has preached there since the church opened eight years ago.
A native of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Bowne grew up going to church and loved studying and teaching the Bible. After seminary training, he landed in Frankford, where he says pastors and the church are appreciated.
“I grew up in the suburbs, and a much more kind of liberal area, and the idea of church and a pastor was seen more with suspicion, but in the neighborhood here, people find out I’m a pastor, and it’s this big thing,” said Bowne.
Grace City Church offers a household product pantry in its lobby alongside free budgeting assistance, weekly coffee-and-conversation hours, Sunday daycare and youth classes during the school year.
Under the umbrella
Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are all represented in Frankford. Within Christianity alone, current listings show at least 18 different denominations and traditions calling the neighborhood home. While distinct doctrinal differences set these congregations apart, they all share a deep commitment to the local community.
Gabriel Wang-Herrera, a longtime pastor at By Grace Alone Church, is a testament to that dedication. He has served in Frankford for 21 years and has kept the same phone number the entire time so neighbors can always reach him. His ministry is deeply personal; during his time as pastor, his family twice took in a young girl during difficult periods, raising her until she could return home. Today, she is 26, and she and her two children are active members of his church.
“We know that there’s no other place that God wants us to be and that we want to be, and we love it,” Wang-Herrera said. “And we love the relationships.”
