Moses Chapel AME Church was built in 1877 during a time when AME church congregations were popping up all across the country, especially in the South. Prior to the end of the Civil War, most congregations were in the North and Midwest, but as the Confederacy fell, newly freed Black men and women sought to start new churches. By 1880, there were almost 400,000 members of the AME church.
Opened in 1902, the Wallace Grove Church and School were built after land was donated by W. P. Wallace in 1901. (My assumption is that this is William Pierce Wallace, who was a local banker and merchant in the area.) The one-room schoolhouse was used until the 1960s to educate Black schoolchildren.
The school fell into disrepair. In 2011, the congregation came together to restore the school. With assistance from the community, the school was fully restored in under a year. It is the only extant turn-of-the-century schoolhouse still standing in its original location.
