The only information I’ve been able to locate about this house lists it as the Johnson House and dates it to 1900. I think the Johnson family were longtime owners, but I believe the house to have been built much earlier than 1900.
I haven’t located a history for this congregation. The earliest burials I found in the adjacent cemetery date to the 1870s.
This structure is located next door to the Norwood Post Office. It once served as the bank in Norwood.
An interesting bit of trivia about Norwood and the post office can be found on a nearby 1955 Georgia Historical Commission marker titled “The Original RFD”: In 1868 at Norwood six men along a five mile rural route hired Jerry Parsons*, a Negro who could not read, to deliver and collect mail at their homes each day except Sundays and holidays for his food and clothing. The postmaster at Norwood each morning arranged the mail in correct order and “Uncle Jerry” began his ten mile walk covering, in all, 3,110 miles. Sen. Thomas Watson, then a boy clerking for Hon. T.E. Massengale, observed this perfect plan for Rural Free Delivery. In February 1893, Sen. Watson, then in Congress, sponsored the bill creating Rural Free Delivery, copying “Uncle Jerry’s” R.F.D. in Norwood.
*-Regarding Jerry Parsons, it is a shame that the stories of men like this have been lost. I would love to hear from anyone who knows more about him.
I admire this house every time I’m in Norwood. Sherie Shivers Luffman writes: The “Gothic Revival House” in Norwood, GA, belonged to my grandmother, Lucinda Hill Sisson (Miss Tinnie) and her husband, Edwin Sisson who owned Sisson Mercantile in Norwood for many years. “Miss Tinnie” had two sons by a previous marriage to a Wilkes, and her son, John Wilkes, who was a rural mail carrier, inherited the house. “Miss Tinnie” also had 4 children by her 2nd husband after she became widowed. They were Edwin Sisson, Jr., Jim Sisson, Helen Sisson Cole and my mother, Martha Sisson Shivers.
Update: Charlotte White writes: Unfortunately, this beautiful old home burned to the ground in the Spring of 2019.
This is one of Warren County’s most historic African-American congregations, dating to 1876.
As of February 2017, the wood frame building on the left has been torn down. The photo below (2/2/2017) shows the work in progress.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 