Lost Churches of Mississippi

Introduction

- xi Introduction Churches and synagogues are often among the most visually prominent and architecturally interesting buildings in any American community. That is certainly true of the cities and towns of Mississippi. They are often among the most historically interesting buildings as well, but many of the most architecturally and historically interesting religious buildings no longer exist, having been destroyed or remodeled beyond recognition. This book is intended to showcase a selection of some of the more notable of the lost churches and synagogues of Mississippi. Lost Churches of Mississippi is primarily a collection of photographs and other illustrations depicting those lost churches, along with some architectural and historical information about them. There is also some information about the broader architectural context of a few of the churches, but this book is not intended to be a history of religious architecture in Mississippi. Readers seeking an overview of the architectural history of Mississippi churches are urged to consult the historical summary “Religious Architecture in Mississippi from the 1820s through the 1920s,” which serves as the introduction to Historic Churches of Mississippi. All of the churches and synagogues featured in this book are“lost”in the sense that the buildings have been destroyed or remodeled beyond recognition. Only one of these churches still stands (the old First Baptist Church of Corinth), and it is now in a largely unrecognizable form, having been converted to a commercial building. All the others are completely gone, having been lost due to a variety of different causes. Many of Mississippi’s lost churches were destroyed by storms. Some were lost to tornadoes, such as the old St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Vicksburg, which was severely damaged by the tornado that ripped though the downtown in December xii INTRODUCTION 1953, and Bethel Presbyterian Church near Columbus, which was destroyed by a tornado in 2002. Many churches along the Gulf Coast have been damaged or destroyed by hurricanes, most notably Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Camille caused the destruction of the old Trinity Episcopal Church and the old St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Pass Christian, the old St. John’s Catholic Church in Gulfport, and the second building of the Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi. Thirty-six years later, Hurricane Katrina destroyed St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Gulfport and the older building of the Church of the Redeemer, among numerous other churches. Some churches have been lost to fires, including the old First Presbyterian Church in Yazoo City, which was destroyed in the fire that ravaged the downtown in 1904, and the second building of Crawford Street Methodist Church in Vicksburg, which burned in 1925. A surprisingly large proportion of Mississippi’s lost religious buildings were demolished at the behest of their own congregations, either because they were perceived to be structurally unsound or because the congregation desired to construct a larger building or one in a different location. The old First Baptist Church of Biloxi, the old First Presbyterian Church of Corinth, the old St. James Episcopal Church in Greenville, the old First Baptist Church of Hattiesburg, both the second and third buildings of Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, the old Central Methodist Church in Meridian, and the old First Baptist Church in Yazoo City were among the many churches and synagogues that were sold or demolished when their congregations erected buildings at new locations. The Methodist Church in Brandon, the old First Baptist Church of Columbus, and the old First Methodist Church of Greenville were among those that were demolished in order to be replaced by a new house of worship at the same site as the earlier building. In some cases a new sanctuary was constructed immediately next door to the old one, which sometimes continued to serve as an annex, chapel, or fellowship hall for some time until it was demolished, as was the case with the First Baptist Church in Amory. (A surviving example of this practice of retaining an older sanctuary as an annex or fellowship hall can be seen at First Presbyterian Church in Greenwood, where a new sanctuary was built in 1925–26 immediately next to the old sanctuary, dating from 1904, which was remodeled to serve as a church annex.) Some religious buildings, such as the Clear Creek Baptist Church near Natchez, were simply abandoned when their congregation moved or became defunct , and the buildings eventually fell into ruin. For many lost churches, however, the cause of their...