While this church sits abandoned in the woods, a newer church is on the property. The congregation was established in 1885, and tax records indicate the church was built in the same year.
Based on the death certificates on a findagrave and the obituaries I located, this is a historic Black congregation.
Below are three of the obituaries I located online at the Atlanta Constitution.
The Durham’s Chapel community was formed by freedmen and women after the conclusion of the Civil War. It is now a part of the town of Bethpage. The church was founded in 1866 by Reverend Peter Vertrees. Vertrees is noted for his work in founding many Black churches and schools in the Middle Tennessee area. The Freedmen’s Bureau supported funding for the building of the first church.
Durham’s Chapel is one of the few communities that still have a Rosenwald School. The building was restored and is used for church events.
There are small churches all over the United States with seemingly small footprints. They are too new for the history books and are not mentioned enough in the local newspaper to glean a history. If they eschew social media, then it’s even harder to research their history. The House of Refuge seems to be one of those churches. It is located on White Sulfur Road, just outside Gainesville, Georgia. According to tax records, the building was constructed in 1955. I am not sure if it has always been a church, but the building with its tall steeple caught my eye as I was driving through Gainesville, so I pulled over to catch it in the fading sun.
The oldest church in Bartow County is the Pine Log Methodist Church. It was organized in 1834 and built in 1842. It has been in continuous use since then. It is also the oldest church structure in North Georgia. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The annual camp meeting celebrated its 190th meeting in July 2024. The wooden shelters surround the church and provide housing for the attending families. Most were built in the 1930s. The tabernacle was built in 1888.
The Church on the Square, a Carpenter Gothic church built in 1887, is on the edge of the commercial district. In 2024, the Georgia Trust of Historic Preservation honored its restoration with the Excellence in Rehabilitation award.
The congregation began as Providence Methodist Church but changed the name to Clowers United Methodist Church after Thomas Clowers, who helped build the original log structure. The congregation relocated to Cataula and renamed itself the Cataula United Methodist Church. The church is still active as the Cataula Chapel.
