Tag Archives: church

Churches, Georgia

Rock Eagle 4-H Center Chapel-Eatonton, Georgia

Leave a comment

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.”

Black History, Cemeteries, Florida, Vernacular Headstones

Memorial Cemetery-Jacksonville, Florida

1 Comment

Established by a Leo Benedict, a local businessman, in 1909, Memorial Cemetery is one of several Black cemeteries on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville, Florida. By 1911, the cemetery was run by the Memorial Cemetery Association.

Vernacular marker

The association utilized the Afro-American Life Insurance Company to manage the day to day operations of the cemetery. Abraham Lincoln Lewis served as the president of the company. When it disbanded, the Lewis family continued to manage the cemetery. They managed it until the 1980s when the family turned to a non-profit to run the cemetery. It disbanded and now the city of Jacksonville runs it.

Alice Anderson, 1876-1930, G. U. O. Of O. F. is the abbreviation for Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. Alice was a Most Worthy Grand Superior for the Household of Ruth.
Back of Alice Anderson’s marker
Black History, Cemeteries, Churches, Demolished, Georgia, Schools, Vernacular Headstones

Mt. Zion Baptist Church-LaGrange, Georgia

Leave a comment

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.

Cemeteries, Churches, Georgia

Long Cane Baptist Church-Long Cane, Georgia

Leave a comment

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.

Black History, Churches, Georgia

St. Mark’s AME Church-Atlanta, Georgia

Leave a comment

Founded in 1895, St. Mark AME called the stone edifice on James Brawley Drive their second home after they lost their first building to fire in 1948. They took over the space after the Western Heights Baptist Church vacated the building.

The church was built in 1920 using Stone Mountain granite. Designed by architect Charles Hopson, the church was built by fitting the stone together like a puzzle instead of cutting them.

The church received landmark status in 2022.