Ezekiel Congregational Methodist Church has captured the eye of many photographers over the years. For all who passed it, people would wonder how it was still hanging on.
An online friend mentioned it had fallen. Oddly, there was no mention in the newspapers, and according to this image by Paul Peel on Google Maps, it’s been down for at least two months. (Thank you for sharing!)
Updated to add: Someone who lives near the church said it was bulldozed.
The congregation of Mt. Zion AME Zion Church was formed in 1892 by eleven freedmen and women. The first building was a cabin in Dix Gap.
Led by Reverend Joseph Hooper, the church membership proliferated. Their next building was constructed on land now a part of Western Carolina University.
In 1926, WCU leadership approached the church about relocation so that they could build a new dormitory. The university paid $3,200 for the building and $1,000 to move 76 graves to the current site. In Victoria Casey’s Just Over the Hill: Black Appalachians in Jackson County, Western North Carolina, church members were against the moving of the graves because they felt it was sacrilegious; they decided it was worse to leave them surrounded by the campus because there would always be the threat the school could bulldoze them. Church members prayed over the graves before they were moved and again when they were reburied.
Designed by a local Black builder, George Dallas Gray, the church opened in 1929. The original pews are still in use today.
References
Casey McDonald, V. A., & Cochran, M. T. (2022). Just over the hill: Black appalachians in Jackson County, western North Carolina. Western Carolina University.
Russell, D. (2017, November 8). Cullowhee Church to celebrate 125 years of services. The Sylva Herald. https://www.thesylvaherald.com/news/article_0d923d46-c489-11e7-819b-db9a8de2c288.html
Over Labor Day weekend, I took a trip to Western North Carolina. With the devastating floods caused by Hutticane Helene, I thought I would share some of the beautiful places I photographed.
The Webster Baptist Church sits on a bluff above the Tuckasegee River in Webster, North Carolina. The river flooded, but I don’t yet know how Webster fared.
The church was built in 1900. Joseph and Lawrence Cowan, a local father and son cabinetmaker duo, built the original furniture, which is still in use today.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Head of Tennessee Baptist Church in Dillard, Georgia, was founded in the 1820s, making it one of the oldest congregations in North Georgia. The first church was a log cabin built in 1827. The current brick structure was built in the 1930s, and it is the fourth structure for the congregation.
The Digital Library of Georgia’s database contains one image of an earlier church structure.
Founded in 1870, the First Baptist Church of Dahlonega, Georgia, was a historic Black congregation founded with funds from the Freedman’s Bureau. Residents approached the Bureau to help fund the building of a school on Crane’s Hill, land that was given to them by William Price. Price named Daniel Keith, Henry Castleberry, and Thomas Samuels as trustees of the land.
The Freedman’s Bureau donated $900 for the construction of a school building that the First Baptist Church would also use.
Note: I’ve tried to determine if the current building was rebuilt in the same location as the original church building, but I can’t do so with the maps I can find online.
Reference:
Lund Smith, J. (2001). Negotiating the Terms of Freedom: The Quest for Education in an African American Community in Reconstruction North Georgia. In J. Inscoe (Ed.), Appalachians and race: The mountain South from slavery to segregation (pp. 220-234). The University Press of Kentucky. https://archive.org/details/appalachiansrace0000unse_r2z2/page/n1/mode/2up
Camp meetings are annual events hosted by churches to bring community and faith together for a week-long series of Protestant worship. There are several theories on how this practice started, but one of the most widely supported beliefs is that these meetings emulated Scottish and English events celebrating communion season, a weeklong holy fair that would end with the Lord’s supper.
The practice of camp meetings is similar to tent revivals, but attendees would stay on-site for the week. Camp meetings occur throughout the United States, but most of them happen in the South. Their purpose was often to provide a place and time to worship for people who lived in areas without easy access to a church. It was also about building community. Claudia Delviney (2002) states, “The camp meeting provided a place to affirm one’s humanity, and to find meaning and order in the turmoil of pioneer existence. The Christian gospel preached at these revivals celebrated the worthiness of the individual soul amidst an environment that threatened human worth” (p. 27).
Camp meeting sites are an important example of vernacular architecture and “town” planning because they show the importance of building lodges close together, providing porches for neighborly discussions, and a central gathering place for attendees to gather. These architectural highlights can be seen in religious campgrounds around the South.
The Loudsville Campgrounds are across from the Loudsville United Methodist Church in White County, Georgia. White County has four of the state’s extant camp meeting sites. Since 1838, families have gathered for the annual camp meeting in Loudsville. Except during the Civil War, the Louisville Campmeeting happened every year. Before the Civil War, families would bring the people they enslaved with them, and they would participate separately from the white families in an area set aside for them to participate.
Like many campgrounds, these meeting sites evolved from brush arbors to tents to wooden or metal buildings. The Louisville site illustrates the evolution of these structures from more rudimentary one-story buildings to two-story buildings that often include porches. According to the Loudsville Campmeeting website, there are over 73 “tents” with the plan to add more. Their annual meeting happens every July.
References:
Deviney, C. (2002). From spirit to structure: A study of Georgia’s Historic Camp Meeting Grounds [Master’s Thesis, University of Georgia]. https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/deviney_claudia_h_200212_mhp.pdf
Glover, P. (n.d.). History of Loudsville Campmeeting. Loudsville Campmeeting. Retrieved July 21, 2024, from https://www.loudsvillecampmeeting.com/ldvlhist.htm
