Photographing old and sometimes forgotten churches
Built in 1948, Lavonia Methodist Church is not as old as most of the churches I usually stop at, but it had a distinctive character that caught my eye when passing through this small town in the northeast corner of Georgia. According to a plaque on the front of the building, the previous church was built in 1907 and burned at the end of 1946.
Little River Baptist Church in Nova Scotia, Canada was built in late 1876. The wooden church with Gothic detailing also features a central tower. The church and cemetery are now part of the heritage designation for Canada’s Historic Places.
Another small town church. Happy Home Baptist is found in Allendale, South Carolina. Although the congregation was formed just after the Civil War and originally used the name Zion Branch Baptist Church, it later renamed and this Gothic Revival brick church was built in 1911.
Maxey’s Christian Church was organized some time around 1891. This building is located in Oglethorpe County, a little bit east of Athens.
It’s believed that the Presbyterian Church of Upsala got its name from the Upsala University located in Stockholm, Sweden. The building was constructed in 1892 by Swedish immigrants who settled in the area a little north of Orlando.
This restored church now serves as the Hawthorne Historical Museum and Cultural Center in Alachua County, Florida. It originally served as an African-American church, having been built in 1907.
This old church is slowly rotting away on a rural road in southern Georgia. Ezekiel Congregational Methodist Church was built around the turn of the 20th century and definitive information about its history is a little hard to come by. It’s a Carpenter Gothic design and despite fire damage, still has some gingerbread ornamentation remaining. It’s not far from the Ruskin church which has some similar decorative touches.
