The story you are about to read is true, a place etched in the annals of history.  The sequence of events that started there could not be contained within the confines of it's walls.

The time, the place, and the condition were conducive to the Spirit of God dwelling there.  "...And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting."  His Shekinah Glory showered down upon the small group of believers who had again gathered to tarry for the unquestionable evidence of the Holy Ghost.  To paraphrase (Acts 2:4) "...they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."  This house is the place where the Latter Rain outpouring began and is the last remaining physical structure related to the 1906 Azusa Street Revival.

Pentecostal Heritage (a non-profit California Religious Corporation) bids you Holy Greetings.  This organization represents  several prominent Pentecostal persuasions, including the CHARISMATICS, ONENESS, AND TRINITARIANS. Recognized religious scholars, researchers, and historians throughout the world acknowledge this house as the place where modern day Pentecostals can trace their spiritual roots.

THE  REVIVAL  THAT  MADE   WORLD  HISTORY

(A brief recap describing a few of the events that took place in this house and the Azusa Street Mission.)

William J. Seymour, a Holiness minister from Houston, Texas was invited here to Los Angeles to lead a Holiness Mission on Santa Fe Street.  Upon his arrival he began teaching that speaking in tongues invariably accompanies the baptism with the Holy Spirit.  Julia Hutchinson, the owner of the mission, objected to this teaching and ordered Seymour and his supporters to leave.  Hutchinson then padlocked the doors and refused to allow them reentry.  God placed on Richard and Ruth Asberry's hearts (a Black couple and prior owner of the house) to open their doors.  They did, and the meeting resumed.  Seymour and his small band of believers began to fast and pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

On April 9, 1906 IT HAPPENED!  The  group had gathered again with  one  accord, touching  and agreeing, concentrating  on  scriptures in the book of Acts.  No one at this small gathering had clergy credentials nor did anyone have an  official  pulpit.  Each person did  have the faith and determination to tarry for the Holy Ghost.  Suddenly, all resistance departed and the Holy Ghost came with a force incomprehensible to the human mind.  Several members were slain instantly  and baptized with the  Holy Ghost, and began speaking in unknown tongues.  God anointed Jennie Moore (who later married William Seymour) with the gift to play the piano for the first time and to sing in unknown tongues.  Another convert was given the gifts of prophecy and  the interpretation of tongues.  Their shouts were so loud that  they attracted the neighbors and a crowd congregated.

As  God's  Almighty Power began to quake the people out of their chairs and off  their feet under the power of the Holy Spirit, a prophecy came forth of great destruction which was soon to come to the land. The saints began pleading with sinners to repent for their ways of sin and choose  to walk  with God.  Less then ten days after that warning,  the 1906 San Francisco earthquake occurred.  The Spiritual quake and the geological quake occurred only a few days apart.  People are no longer shaking from that localized quake in San Francisco but the quake that was felt in the little  house is still being felt around the world by those who repent of their sins to walk with God.

The following day, the word began to spread all over the city that people were being baptized with the Holy Spirit as on the day of Pentecost.  In a matter of days rapid and enormous growth reached such a peak that the gatherings were forced to move from the inside of this house to the outside front yard.  The porch served as the platform,  and the yard and dirt road were used for sitting and kneeling.  The wooden porch collapsed due to the weight of people crowding on it.  Seymour, directed by God,  located  an  old two story  frame abandoned  building on Azusa  Street which was owned and once occupied by First AME Church which had vacated the building in 1903.  Seymour secured that structure and the believers move there.

Several  very ardent newspaper reporters from the Los Angeles news media described the building as a tumble-down shack.  Reporters began to flood the news media with voluminous derogatory stories about the group's activities. One journalist wrote:  "a new sect of fanatics is breaking loose, they make weird babbling sounds ...they never dismiss church."

Another  reports read:  "Disgraceful  intermingling  of  the races,  they  cry and  make  howling  noises all day and into the night.  They run, jump, shake all over, shout to the top of their voice, spin around in circles, fall out on the sawdust blanketed floor jerking, kicking and rolling all over it.  Some of them pass out and do not move for hours as though they were dead.  These people appear to be mad, mentally deranged or under a spell.  They  claim to be filled with the spirit.  They have a one eyed, illiterate, Negro as their preacher who stays on his knees much of the time with his head hidden between wooden milk crates.  He doesn't talk very much but at times he can be heard shouting Repent," and he's supposed to be running the thing...They repeatedly sing the same song, 'The Comforter Has Come.'"

The reporters' descriptions attracted world wide attention, in fact, their reports served as the impetus that promoted the growth of the meeting.

The news continued to spread like wild fire and for three and a half years the revival persisted.  Multitudes came from across this nation and many parts of the world to witness and experience the miraculous movement of God.  They also came from all walks of life: the rich, the poor, the educated and UN-educated.  There was no race issue for the blood of Jesus had washed away the color line.

They came  seeking the  fullness of God's promises by the hundreds.  Some  came  as  candidates for the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Countless others came to receive healing of their infirmities.  The bedridden  leaped from their beds  claiming  their healing.  The crippled  stood up from wheel chairs; those needing support of crutches and walking canes threw them down and began to walk without any aid or assistance.  The sightless screamed, "I can see!"  The dumb began to speak in unknown tongues and the deaf became listening witnesses to all of the beautiful sounds.  Hundreds were saved as conviction gripped their souls.

As a result of this Holy Ghost outpouring, the Pentecostal movement gripped the world.  This was the start of several prominent Full Gospel organizations and they in turn gave birth to various groups.  Millions of souls have received the gift of tongues and interpretations since that great revival.

We discovered that both revival sites have inexplicable facets  surrounding them which are reflected in the addresses.  The house number, 216 North Bonnie Brae, has the same number as recorded in the book of  Acts 2:16 which reads "THIS IS THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY THE PROPHET JOEL" The word "AZUSA" the first  and last letters of the English alphabet A  Z followed by U S A.  The facts are that every state, city, town, and hamlet from A to Z  here in the U. S .A. was touched by the 1906 Holy Ghost Revival.

The Azusa Street Mission was demolished many years ago.  There is a marker in what is now known as Little Tokyo, as to where the  building stood.  The Pentecostal Heritage Corporation purchased the Bonnie Brae home from the Asberry descendants.
 

We resolve to maintain this house of our saintly forefathers in perpetuity.
We resolve to develop this house into a Pentecostal museum.
We resolve to make this house accessible to all people for prayer and supplication.
We resolve to keep the artifacts and the spirit of the 1906 Azusa Street Revival.
We resolve to develop a Pentecostal research library for Biblical scholars.
We resolve to develop a Pentecostal family counseling center and telephone prayer line.

We need your help to keep this vision alive.  We are asking  and  thanking  you  in advance  for your gift of  love and for showing concern.  Please mail your donations in care of: Pentecostal Heritage, Inc., Post Office Box 75862, Los Angles, CA  90075-0862 or Email: ArtEGlas@Flash.net
May God's peace abide with you.
 

At the turn of the century there was not a single Pentecostal denomination anywhere in America, although Pentecostalism was represented in several "prophetic movements" on the continent of Africa.  Today, however, there are more than a half billion Pentecostals, (all races) from around the world.
Pentecostals have come to be identified by their exuberant worship;  an emphasis on subjective religious experience and spiritual gifts;  claims of supernatural miracles, signs, and wonders ‹ including a language of experiential spirituality, rather than of theology;  and a mystical "life in the Spirit" by which they daily live out the will of God.
In the same way the followers of Christ have suffered through the centuries, sometimes at the hands of those who thought of themselves as servants of God.  The greatest outbreaks of persecution have been directed toward those whose religious beliefs are in sharpest contrast to their time.  Jesus spoke of an innate hatred that exists in the world toward spiritual men.  Apostle Paul could understand this inevitable hostility, because of his early hatred of Christians.
Historians often trace the origins of Pentecostalism in the American context to a revival that began on January 1, 1901, at Charles F. Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas.  While the immediate impact of this event was limited, Parham's ministry gained more acceptance years later.  But much of the notoriety can be accredited to William J. Seymour,  a Black Holiness preacher who had become convinced of the truth of Parham's teachings on Spirit baptism.  Historiographers of every Pentecostal denomination and movement have acknowledge the Los Angeles revival as the birthplace of the entire branch of religion known as Pentecostalism.

Cartoonist headline:

"SUMMER SOLSTICE SEES STRENUOUS SECTS SASHAYING"
 

This cartoon, dated July 23, 1906, is an orginal copy from  a Los Angeles daily newspaper.  It is an endeavor to mimic and ridicule those person's attending the 1906 Azusa Revival and discourage others from attending.
The newspaper cartoonist  underestimated the importance of the revival and suggested that  the people were either insane or being driven insane by the  revival leaders.  Cartoons such as this continued to appear in the newspapers but it did not deter the masses from attending the gathering.

"Religion stands on tiptoe,"  so an English poet puts it.  But here it goes a jumping when a pious brother foots it;  And sisters with the "gift of tongues" - is that a scoffer's jest?  Observe no more St. Paul's commands, but shout like all possessed.