A modern brick church stands adjacent to this structure. I’m glad the congregation has done their best to save this structure.
I recently revisited this wonderful old church and was able to photograph the interior.
Not only was the pot-bellied stove still intact, but a stack of firewood remained at the back of the sanctuary, awaiting the next congregants.
The church is true landmark of vernacular architecture and its survival is extraordinary.
According to Lorraine Frederick Minton, whose great-great-great-grandfather, Francis Eugene Flanders founded the church, it was designed with a “Quaker Heart”. Flanders was a circuit rider. Her great-great-great-great-grandfather, Richard Drake, was the architect. She notes: It was originally built on the other side of the “swamp” and later pulled by oxen and placed on logs to cross the swamp and placed where it is today. The original church records are now reported to be stored at Lake Junaluska, NC.
Bartow UMC was organized on 18 July 18 1879. In the late 1890’s the church was moved into the town of Bartow. The original church building was torn down and rebuilt.
Constituted as the First Baptist Church, the congregation now simply calls itself Bartow Baptist Church. J. G. Gunter was the pastor at the time this structure was raised. The cornerstone lists the building committee as: J. R. O. Smith; A. S. Chamlee; N. A. Williams; T. C. Jordan; T. Y. Smith; G. H. Ratchford; and L. G. Smith.
I photographed this historic African-American church in late 2012. It’s a great example of a common style that is usually found modified today.
Randall Davis writes that a contact in Jefferson County noted that this was a Methodist church, but attended by Methodists and Baptists as it was the only church in the community. The Baptists moved to their own church, Friendship in 1955. It was originally known as Fleming Chapel, as confirmed by the name of the nearby Fleming-Burke Cemetery. It was later known as Allen’s Chapel. At some point after that, it was converted into a private residence.
Randall is an excellent source of information on churches in this section of Georgia and provided many images for Historic Rural Churches of Georgia (UGA Press, Athens, 2016). He has been quite helpful to me in identifying not only churches but other historic structures throughout the region.
From the Louisville ARP church website: The beginnings of Louisville Presbyterian Church date to around 1778. A Scotchman named George Galphin established a trading post at a settlement first called Ogeechee. Eventually the settlement was relocated nine miles up river to a place called New Town. In 1795, the legislative commission selected New Town as the capital of Georgia. The Presbyterian community established various meetinghouses around the area from which three main churches developed, Bethel, Ebenezer, and Louisville. When the capital was moved from Louisville in 1806, the town declined and the Louisville church became inactive. The building was given over to the Methodists. The Louisville ARP Church was formally organized in 1874 under the leadership of Dr. A.L. Patterson. During the tenure of Dr. J. C. Galloway, the first building was erected around 1878 or 1880. The first church burned in 1911 and a new building was erected in 1914.
Located near Waldens United Methodist Church, I long assumed this to be a schoolhouse due to its small size, but Shirley Mungo Brown writes: This building is located on our land close to Avera. My father -in-law said he went to church there occasionally as a young boy. He remembers them “washing feet” (which he didn’t understand at that time). This was circa 1917. It could have served as a school but not sure. There was an old pulpit in it years ago. My father in law said it was a church named Corinth. My husband’s family has always referred to it as Corinth Church.
I’m very grateful to Mrs. Brown for sharing this history.
When first built, around 1860, this church was also used as a schoolhouse. The building is original, though it was moved closer to the road in 1910.