Monochrome Monday; Old African-American Church

Abandoned church building.  Poorhouse Road. (click to enlarge)

Last year, during one of my backroads wanderings I discovered this old, abandoned building out in the middle of nowhere.  Not actually nowhere but at a country crossroads.  Not knowing exactly what it was I was curious (always stay curious) so I stopped.  Buildings such as these have the potential to make interesting subjects for my photography.  After exploring the immediate area, I decided to photograph the building and its grounds as both have several interesting features.  

Since my first discovery, I've been back a few more times and have rephotographed the scene.  This is my favorite image of the ones I have made.  The foreboding sky and empty landscape gives one a good idea of the area in which the building is located and complements the deterioration and decrepit nature of the structure.  Monochrome is the right treatment for this composition, in my opinion.  Also, I gave the image a very slight warm tone.

Adjacent to the building I found two cemeteries.  Brown's A.M.E. Cemetery is on the southwest side of the building and Ebenezer Cemetery on its north side.  From the fact that cemeteries are located on the grounds as well as the names of the cemeteries, I believe this is an old African-American church.  Probably from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.  As of yet, I have not been able to locate any more information about it except the suggestion that the building may have been called Ebenezer Baptist Church.  But that is speculation from a n internet source.  Since I remain curious, I'll keep searching and if I do find out more about it, I'll update this post.

One additional thing I found interesting.  That jumble of vegetation at the front right corner of the building are dozens of discarded artificial flowers, flower pots and other decorations from the nearby gravesites.  Just piled up randomly inside of a makeshift wire fence.  I've never seen that before.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

All content on this blog is © 2013-2025 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.