(AP)  BOSTON — Step into the sanctuary of the African Meeting House and you will walk on the same ancient floorboards where Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and other prominent abolitionists railed against slavery in the 19th century, and where free black men gathered to shape the famed 54th Massachusetts Civil War regiment.

Following a painstaking, $9 million restoration, the nation's oldest black church building is set to reopen to the public early next month. Beverly Morgan-Welch, who has spent more than a decade spearheading the project, calls the three-story brick building the nation's most important African American historic landmark.

"This space has the echo of so many of the greats of their time ... who were trying to figure out a way to end slavery," said Morgan-Welch, executive director of the Museum of African American History....