In 1830 Rev. Thomas James, who found sanctuary in Rochester after escaping from slavery founded the Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, then located on Favor Street (now on Clarissa Street).
This Church was an early center for the Underground Railroad, and was also where Frederick Douglass first edited and printed his abolitionist Newspaper, The North Star, in the church basement. In the 1920s Clarissa Street was once known as Rochester's Broadway, a popular neighborhood that became famous for it's Jazz Music and various Clubs.
Clarissa Street Spiritualist Church actually seems to refer to two different congregations: Second Spiritualist Alliance Church and Good Will Spiritualist Church. Both congregations are referred to as Clarissa Street Spiritualist Church and it seems fairly likely that these different names all refer to the same congregation, albeit at different times.
The earliest listing for the Clarissa Street Spiritualist Church was in 1929, which first met as the Second Spiritualist Alliance Church. The Second Spiritualist Alliance Church was listed together with the First Spiritualist Alliance Church, however Second Alliance was specifically advertised as "Colored." Both groups were lead by a woman named Rev. Ina Woodward and the congregation met at the Gibson Hotel on Clarissa Street.
In 1937 Good Will Spiritualist Church was listed in the Democrat and Chronical to have chartered with the National Colored Spiritualist Association of Churches. The Church was mentioned to not have a Pastor at the time, but was supervised by a Thomas Jackson and a Mrs. Martha Gee conducting services.
There is unfortunately very little information recorded about these individuals, however we can see from church listings in newspapers that most were active within the Rochester Spiritualist community, visiting and serving in various churches and congregations.
It seems likely that the Clarissa Street Spiritualist Church congregation began during the first wave of segregation of Spiritualist Churches in the 1920s (Second Spiritualist Alliance) and was most likely re-chartered as Good Will Spiritualist Church due to the second segregationist policy that was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association in the 1930s.
Following this line of thought, the lack of documentation into the 1930s is most likely due to the fact that the General Assembly of Spiritualists broke from the National Spiritualist Association over the subject of segregation, and the Clarissa Street Spiritualist congregation most likely joined those Churches that were already well established and open and affirming of African Americans.
Although I couldn't find very much information about the Spiritualist congregation at Clarissa Street, I did manage to find some of the sermons that were given on Sunday Services: "Class Fellowship", "From Whence Cometh Thou", "Is Spiritualism A Religion?", "Light", "Who Was The First Mother?" (Mothers Day Service).
