Category Archives: Churches

Churches, Georgia

Rock Eagle 4-H Center Chapel-Eatonton, Georgia

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The Rock Eagle 4-H Center Chapel was completed June 16, 1955. It was part of the original Rock Eagle campus. Designed by Grady Smith, an architect with Cooper, Barrett, Skinner, Woodbury and Cooper, it was built using local rock and timber.

In February 2019, the chapel caught on fire. Ruled accidental, the interior of the church was gutted, but the stone walls were still standing. It was fully restored, and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation awarded the camp “Excellence in Preservation.”

Alabama, Black History, Cemeteries, Churches, Famous People, Historic Photos, Houses, National Register of Historic Places, Rosenwald Schools, Schools

Booker T. Washington-Tuskegee, Alabama

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Booker T. Washington was an educator, speaker, author, and benefactor. He was the first president of Tuskegee University when it was known as Tuskegee Institute. His accomplishments are numerous. From working with Julius Rosenwald to start the fund for Rosenwald schools to traveling the world to speak on issues that impacted the Black community, Washington was a tireless advocate for change. Many members of the Black community supported his belief that the focus should be on education and wealth accumulation. Whereas there were those, who disagreed with him and felt that he bowed to white interests by not pushing forward an agenda based on civil rights and political representation.

“The Oaks” is a large Victorian that sits next to campus. Tuskegee’s students helped build the home that Washington and his family moved into in 1900.

1923 photo of The Oaks (Courtesy of the public domain images provided by the New York Public Library photo archives)

In 1915, Booker T. Washington passed away. It was believed that he died from congestive heart failure and kidney disease that was caused by the stress of his work (later examination of his medical records indicated that he was suffering from very high blood pressure). Over 8,000 people attended his funeral. He is buried in the campus’s cemetery, which is next to the Chapel.

Photo of Booker T. Washington’s funeral. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
Black History, Cemeteries, Churches, Demolished, Georgia, Schools, Vernacular Headstones

Mt. Zion Baptist Church-LaGrange, Georgia

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The congregation was founded in 1868 by freedmen and women of Troup County, Georgia. Initially, they met under a bush arbor. The church was built in 1906. An active church, baptisms were held in the nearby creek until recently, according to this article in the LaGrange Daily News.

I believe the wooden structure is a school since the history of the church states their first church building was built at the turn of the century. It also resembles the many one room schoolhouses that dot Georgia’s landscape.

The cemetery contains a mixture of prefabricated and handmade markers. It also includes at least two Eldren Bailey markers.

Mother Mary Clay (1859-1941)

I believe this marker was made in the likeness of the church.

Chollie Cameron, d. 1942

There were several markers in the cemetery that a similar angel and crown motif.

Bob Florence (1869-1946)

This marker contains the addition of P, 8, and S to the crown and wings. I am uncertain what means.

This marker did not have a name, but I was intrigued that the star was on the front and back side of the marker.

Katie Ruth Crowder, d. 1963

This is one of the Eldren Bailey markers in the cemetery.

Alabama, Black History, Churches, National Register of Historic Places, Rosenwald Schools, Schools

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and School-Notasulga, Alabama

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Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and School were founded in 1916 and 1922, respectively. The school is the only Rosenwald school that is still standing in Macon County, Alabama.

The church and school were one of the locations during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study where participants were told to meet so the United States Public Health Service officials could pick them up for treatment or lack thereof.

The church and school were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. The school went under restoration in 2011.

Cemeteries, Churches, Georgia

Long Cane Baptist Church-Long Cane, Georgia

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Long Cane Baptist Church was founded in 1829, and this church was built soon after that between the years of 1834-1837. The upper windows indicate where the enslaved church members sat in the upper gallery. The church size is quite large for an antebellum church, especially a rural one.

According to the info provided on FindAGrave, three area cemeteries were going to be flooded with the creation of the West Point Dam, and those cemeteries, Potts Cemetery, Sheppard Cemetery, and Wilkinson Cemetery, were located to the church’s cemetery in 1962.