Losing Our Religion
This article was first published in DeSoto Magazine, May 2010. All rights reserved.
Religion has long been at the center southern culture, and that's undoubtedly true of Mississippi. As settlers began forming communities across the state, churches were some of the first buildings constructed. Congregations began meeting in homes, but as the communities grew, the importance of having a physical church home —that served as a central meeting place and a safe place for religious worship — became increasingly important.
Expansion meant that congregations often outgrew their churches. Church buildings were rebuilt, oftentimes on the very same sites. Sometimes they were renovated to suit modern sensibilities. Others, like Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church (Bay St. Louis), were demolished by "acts of God" — fires, tornadoes, or hurricanes. These natural disasters left congregations without spiritual homes, forcing church members to start anew. Others were simply abandoned, unwanted. Transitional ebb and flow in local communities also brought necessary and sometimes inevitable changes to buildings, some of which are local landmarks.
"It has been a matter of interest and a matter of concern to me," says Richard Cawthon, author of Lost Churches of Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, $35). "Landmark buildings, once they have been destroyed, kind of disappear from people's memories. They are not the buildings you see when you drive down the street, so unless you happen to remember them from childhood or see pictures of them in a history book or at the local museum...you may not be aware that they even existed." Lost Churches of Mississippi is an extensive, 200-page collection of photographs, postcards and architectural blueprints that look into the heart of religious communities across the state, showcasing the elegant, the simple, and the ornate structures where religious groups made their early homes.
Lost Churches acquaints the reader with not only the Protestant and Catholic churches that dot the state's landscape but also the lesser-known Jewish synagogues and temples (which many Mississippians might not realize are a part of the state's religious heritage). Many of these churches were built by mail-order plans or by the same architects, and as the book illustrates, other church buildings of the same design can be found in other areas statewide and across the country.
Cawthon credits his piquing interest in churches to the visits to his grandmother's house during his childhood in Louisiana. During those visits, he explored the church next door to her home for hours. This interest ultimately led to him becoming the chief architectural historian at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1985. For almost 20 years, he gathered inspiration for his book during his daily photographic research and travels across the state.
Lost Churches' photographs uphold the memories of budding congregations and give some insight into the early life of a local community. Cawthon's hope is to draw attention to architecture that people take for granted, giving them "an awareness that there is a rich legacy in the architecture of Mississippi of buildings that no longer survive...there are many fascinating and interesting buildings that have been lost in the state."
There are many examples in our own memories of changed or abandoned churches that have seemingly lost their purpose now, where congregations have moved on to other locations. Cawthon hopes the book will motivate readers to "look beyond what their eyes see on a day-to-day basis and remember that there have been fascinating buildings from the past as well as in the present."
Many churches as taken for granted and many more structures could find their way into a future Lost Churches volume.
One can think of many such places like the ghost town of Rodney, where the church ruins remain of the Rodney Presbyterian Church — where a cannonball from a Civil War skirmish is still stuck in the wall over its front door or the abandoned town of Rocky Springs, whose Methodist in the midst of the woods that is the only remaining legacy of a once vibrant and prosperous town.
Other churches have been restored and drastically renovated, so they have missed their chance for inclusion in the book for now. St. Cecelia's Catholic Church in Friars Point was on the path to demolition but it was bought and restored.
Another such example not listed in Cawthon's book is the old Hernando United Methodist Church, which sat across the street from Hernando Baptist on Center Street. All passersby have seen for the past 25 years at that location are townhomes occupied by local residents. The home next door, that was the former Sunday School and nursery was turned into a dentist's office. The newer church, located on Mount Pleasant Road, is ever-growing.
"So many of those buildings are [architecturally] appealing and interesting and have such interesting stories," Cawthon says. "They are worthy of attention and worthy of appreciation."
The book's postcards and photographs capture more than just churches. The photographs offer a time capsule of earlier Mississippi life, with 1930s Model T's lining the street, town folk standing in Victorian-era clothing, and many old building facades.
Though Lost Churches provides a record of the life of these historic buildings, it doesn't tell the full story or the legends surrounding them. In particular, the First Baptist Church in Yazoo City is a structure, which succumbed to flames in 1904, is associated with the well-known tale. The fire that engulfed the entire city was rumored to have been caused by the infamous Witch of Yazoo, whose tale was later made famous by author Willie Morris in his book, My Dog Skip.
Indeed, one book alone cannot begin to tell the full story of these lost landmarks because many of these details exist in people's memories or as a box of photographs in the attic. For all the work put into Lost Churches, the recapturing of this heritage must happen with the help of its readers.
Church buildings hold very special and specific memories for a town and their destruction seems to undermine a sense of cohesiveness and unification among community members. Yet, with help and documentation, these changes can at least be preserved. Cawthon hopes that his book will motivate readers "to find out more about the history of their communities." He encourages them to share their photos and historical knowledge with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History because they are "always trying to gather information from local communities to help preserve local history."
Lost Churches in Mississippi is in stores May 1, 2010 and can also be found on Amazon.com.
