Nye

Old White Church

This post is a submission for Scott Thomas Photography Assignment 5: WHITE.  As you can see, no sign of snow in the Southeastern part of the United States, but what we’ve here is an old white church, one of the oldest churches in our area.  This is Old St. Paul’s Church in Newton, North Carolina that dated back to 1771.  The first house of worship was a small log building and stood where a part of the graveyard is now.

The second building, which is the present one was built about 1808.  The walls of this building are of large hewn logs, weatherboarded on the outside and ceiled inside.  Some of the timbers of the old building were used in this one.  Homemade nails were used in its structure.  This building has a gallery, which originally was used by colored people.  The building is a rectangular in shape, with a door in each end and on one side. There was, at first, a high goblet-shaped pulpit, which was later replaced by a more modern one. (source)

This old church came with haunted tales, back in the 1800’s an escaped slave was shot on the balcony by this slave master.  To this day the blood of the slave is on a pew on the balcony where he was shot.  Several people have reported hearing the organ of the church playing late at night.

Another tale was told by my coworker that many confederate soldiers are buried at this cemetery and  when darkness falls, it is said that some have heard footsteps marching up and down the stairs.

21 comments

    • Cambree, I thought about going to take picture in the evening at sunset, but changed my mind at the last minute, I think it’d capture some interest pictures at dusk. 😉

  2. You can make any story exciting, making one wish to hear more! The church look so different from any church here, beautiful and simple made. Was it a typical way to build any house at that time or does it have some church signs?
    Your choise of subject for “white” is original, well done! 🙂

    • giiid, the people that settled here were the pioneer Pennsylvania German (Deustch), these were farmers that came to America for better opportunities and discovered that the best land in eastern Pennsylvania was already bought, so they migrated south.

      The land here were cheap at the time, about 50 cents an acre and I think the structure was something simple and a design at the time, there’s no cross symbol, just this sign. The current church service is not held at this building, but across the street, you can see the brick structure in the first photo. This white building is open for tour in April-October, so I’m looking forward to visiting again. 🙂

  3. Nye – I drove pass this old white church few times going to the golf course. The church looks old but I didn’t realize it is that old. There are so much history throughout those small towns in North Carolina.

    • seeharhed, we’ve lots of history here, the oldest church in NC is St. Thomas Church in Bath, NC built in 1734, and it’s one of the oldest ones still in use in the country.

      Many people take a shortcut through this road, so not surprise if you’ve passed it before while visiting your friend to get to Rock Barn Golf Course. They did a Restoration not too long ago, so the outside looks fairly new.

  4. The church really stands out in the drab colors of winter or maybe it’s the old dark gravestones which make the white, whiter?

    A very interesting take on the color white, Nye! Thank you for participating! Now, a late evening photo would be neat to see. 🙂

    • Scott, my choice was to either visit during noon time or evening and as you can see that I chose the noon time. I think it’d be real pretty in the evening, but would be real eerie also, maybe for another assignment. 🙂

      It had been raining a couple of days before this, so I’m glad that the sun came out.

  5. I like this very much. The chalk-white church leaps out of the scene, rushing at us out of the history of slavery times and the Civil War, borne on those scudding clouds.

    • Gerry, I learned a lot from this assignment, from talking to my co-workers, many have a German ancestors that traced back to the group that migrated here back in the 1700s. It does take your back to the civil war days, minus the modern car on the roads. 🙂

  6. I’m really fascinated with old cemeteries. I visited one not too long ago. some of the grave stones dated back to 1700s. It felt kinda strange to be there but somehow I felt connected with it.

    • lady0fdarkness, it felt kind of strange for me also, and maybe it’s because we weren’t visiting anyone, I felt like I trespassing somehow.

    • eerenoon, we used to live in Newton and had to take this road home everyday, and somehow the street light would go off when we passed there, and I’m not sure if it were a timing thing, Bo also noticed it when he passed there late at night. It’s kind of eerie, and the strangest thing was that there is a new neighborhood (about 20 houses) right behind it, built about 7 years ago. I certainly don’t want to live there, even if my neighbors are real peaceful spirits (souls).

  8. I like your image of the white church. It is so very different from churches in Denmark.
    And I like your story about the ghost. It could be the white lady. – If it was not a black man.

    • Carsten, thanks. When Scott posted the assignment, this old church came to mind, and as for the ghost story, I might have to be there late at night to see the white lady, not sure if I’m ready to meet her yet. 🙂

  10. What a wonderful post Nye! I’m a sucker for old buildings, and the creepier the better! 🙂 Thanks for sharing this view and this history.

    • Hi JenniferA, thanks. We had our fair share of the snow, we had a snow storm on that Friday, then another one a week later. But it’s nice and sunny now. 🙂

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