Beth Salem Presbyterian Church

Beth Salem Presbyterian Church is a historic African-American church in Athens, Tennessee.

Beth Salem Presbyterian Church
Nearest cityAthens, Tennessee
Coordinates35°23′26″N 84°34′9″W
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1920
MPSRural African-American Churches in Tennessee MPS
NRHP reference No.00000728[1]
Added to NRHPJune 22, 2000

The congregation was organized in 1866 with support from white missionaries, making Beth Salem the first African American church in the three-county farming region of McMinn, Meigs, and Polk counties.[2]

At first, the congregation held its services under a brush arbor. After a local white woman donated land for a building, a log church was built. It also housed a public school. After the log building was destroyed by fire around 1920, the current building was built using donated lumber and the volunteer labor of both black church members and their white neighbors.[2]

The 1920 church building is a one-story, one-room, rectangular frame structure with a gable front entrance, weatherboard siding, and a metal roof. It typifies a vernacular architectural tradition common in rural African-American churches during the Jim Crow era.[2][3] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. Anne-Leslie Owens. "Beth Salem Presbyterian Church". Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.
  3. Carroll Van West (1995). "Historic Rural African-American Churches in Tennessee, 1850 -1970" (National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Submission). National Park Service. pp. E43–E44.
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