Rev. Alfred Young served as pastor of Sharp Street United Methodist Church in the 1800s. Blacks freed by Quakers in the post-revolution period organized Sharp Street as the county's oldest black church, and Quakers contributed to its extensive educational programs. It took its name from Baltimore's Sharp Street Church, regarded as the Mother Church of black Methodism.

The choir of Sharp Street United Methodist Church rehearses in 1940. Since 1822 the church has served Sandy Spring's black community as a religious, social, educational, and cultural center. From left, Rev. Dockett, Robert Cole, Zadie Riggs, Lucy Hopkins, Mattie Claggett, Mary Hopkins Johnson, Corrie Alcorn Hodge, Justine Cole, Blanche Williams, Martha Hackett, Mary Thomas, Maude Hopkins Clark, Elizabeth Thomas, Coleman Thomas, John Hopkins, and Llewelyn Bishop.