I found that personal contacts with older members of congregations often revealed the most interesting information. For consistency, I have limited the comments on the individual churches to a standard format. I supplemented information on individual churches with research on denominations and on architecture; the sources of this information are listed in the bibliography. This information appears in the introduction and, briefly, in the comments on individual churches.
Anchors of Faith is a work of love. My hope is that those with active congregations will thrive and that those that are now redundant will be reborn. I also hope that you the reader will appreciate these physical reminders of the faith of our fathers and that you will find a place in your heart for these anchors of faith.
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Martin T. Olliff, director, Wiregrass Archives, and associate professor of history, Troy University Dothan Campus, and Dr. Mike Holmes, former assistant professor of history, Troy University Dothan Campus for reading the material, making suggestions, and being invaluable guides on history and architecture. Dr. Olliff and Dr. Holmes helped with architectural details for some of the entries, as well as providing information on black churches. Mrs. Rosemary Hale of Pensacola, Florida, provided invaluable help with the photographs. The book would have been impossible without the help of denominational associations, local ministers, and many, many gracious people who love their home churches. Jeff Benton of NewSouth Books provided invaluable editorial assistance.
Introduction
Words of poet Amy Lowell spring to mind when first sighting these wooden churches of a past century: “The sight of a white church above thin trees in a city square/Amazes my eyes as though it were the Parthenon.”
Finding abundant forests of pine, oak, and cypress—choice timber for building —and endowed with strong faith and purpose, early nineteenth century settlers who poured into Southern territory wrested from Indian ownership soon erected places for communal worship. First came brush arbors, crude structures usually featuring rough benches under log-supported roofs of small limbs, vines, and brush. Next came log churches, some of which survive today. Finally, with the invention of the circular saw and water-powered sawmills, inexpensive uniform lumber was available. Then came the steam-powered scroll saw that allowed more inventive decorative trim. Although some settlers of varying nationalities built according to their native construction practices and the demands of their worship traditions, in general, an almost generic meeting house predominated. Foremost, however, was the sheer determination expressed, as one minister said quoting some early German immigrants, “Church first and best, then our homes slightly later.”
Early wooden churches that have survived are seen most often in rural areas and small communities; some remain even in now languishing small towns while a few are preserved in cities. Most of these are carefully maintained by those who recognize and value their heritage; many have been placed on historic registers.
Architecture
Approximately a third of the early wooden churches featured in this book were built before 1865, slightly more that half were built between 1865 and 1900, and about a fifth were built between 1900 and 1940, most of these early in the century. Basically, there were two inspirational sources from architectural history: the classical styles of ancient Greece and Rome and the Christian styles of medieval Europe. The most popular building styles of this period in small towns and rural areas were inspired by a European medieval style known as Gothic.
Early in the nineteenth century, the most popular high style was Greek Revival, which was based on the architecture of ancient Greece. Of course, Greek Revival did not replicate classical Greek architecture; rather Greek Revival was inspired by ancient Greco-Roman architecture. In general, the Greek Revival style was characterized by symmetry and proportion and a simple rectangular floor plan. A columned portico supported a pedimented front gable, and the rectangular windows often had louvered, exterior shutters. Although classic Greco-Roman temples, the inspiration for this style, were built of stone, in small town and rural America, including the South, these buildings were usually constructed of wood. However, the most sophisticated and ambitious, usually urban constructions, were of brick, often covered in stucco and scored to resemble cut stone. Master carpenters, with the aid of builders’ guides, could easily build in this style.
Slightly later than Greek Revival, a second high style became popular. Subsequently classically-inspired and medieval-inspired styles continued alongside one another. The style, based in one degree or another of the Christian medieval architecture, is called Gothic. Actually—because Gothic was so popular and because it was accepted as a Christian architecture as opposed to pagan classicism—it went through many variations. Like Greek Revival, Gothic Revival was popularized through builders’ guides, such as those of Alexander Jackson Davis, Andrew Jackson Downing, Samuel Sloan, and Richard Upjohn. If classical buildings focused on columns, Gothic buildings focused on steep gables and pointed-arch windows and doors, both of which helped create verticality.
In the American countryside and small towns, Gothic Revival style architecture, like Greek Revival style architecture, was adapted to fit local needs, technical capabilities, and financial resources. Local or house carpenters were used, and they freely improvised, retaining the basic Gothic elements. This improvised style—which came out of an abundance of wood rather than the stone or brick used in American urban and in European Gothic Revival architecture—was made all the more economical by the circular saw, water-powered sawmills, and stud-frame construction. Nineteenth century Gothic style changed over time. Carpenter Gothic, which began as an antebellum style, was a peculiar American version of the Gothic. To the basic Gothic elements, it added decorative, but not structural, buttresses, as well as board-and-batten siding, which was an attempt to achieve a degree of verticality. Late in the nineteenth century, High Victorian Gothic was the fashionable Gothic style. Even for simple, rural church buildings, it was characterized by a great deal of creativity: asymmetrical massing, a variety of surface textures, decorative wooden trim, and a degree of excess.
Variants on classical (such as Greek Revival) and medieval (such as Gothic Revival) style church buildings are evident throughout most of the United States, especially in longer-settled areas. Variation occurs for a number of reasons. Besides fashion, financial resources, the relative skills of builders and carpenters, and denominational preferences based on worship practices were considerations in determining church architectural choices.
Religious Denominations
Until well into the twentieth century, Protestantism dominated the religious life of the United States. The Protestant denominations most prominent in the South—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal—provide the majority of wooden churches presented in this book.
Methodists. Of note during this early era of Southern wooden church building was the rapid, unprecedented growth of Methodism, largely due to the diligent efforts of seemingly untiring Methodist circuit-riding preachers who traveled the Southern states by horse or buggy, taking from two to six weeks to make their assigned rounds. A proverbial saying persists about these faithful early circuit riders, once spoken on a bitterly cold winter day, “There is nothing out today but crows and Methodist preachers.”
Methodism, which was founded by John Wesley, a minister of the Church of England, was brought to America in the 1760s and was spread widely by the well-known preacher George Whitefield, who was famous for his part in America’s First Great Awakening movement. After the American Revolution, which stalled growth of the denomination, Methodism was soon revitalized. Wesley sent a general superintendent to establish and oversee church governance. In a 1784 conference in Baltimore, the official Methodist denomination was established in the United States and named the Methodist Episcopal Church.
One of the most influential of early Methodist circuit riders was Francis Asbury, who had been elected a joint superintendent in the first organizational Methodist conference. Historian John
