Mount Sterling Methodist Church is a historic

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church building near the junction of Choctaw County Road 43 and Choctaw County Road 27 in the rural community of Mount Sterling,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. It is an almost unaltered example of the simple,

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style popular for rural churches in the mid-19th century. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on May 8, 1986.

History

The church was completed in a simple Greek Revival style in 1859, when the community was a prosperous antebellum town. The land for the church was donated by the Catterlin family, early Choctaw County settlers who had established the a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in Mount Sterling in 1838. The one-story frame building was the first in the county to be built exclusively as a church; an earlier

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

church was originally built as a

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

and

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

. It used for church services up until the 1970s, when the dwindling congregation could no longer afford to maintain it. ''See also:'' In 1980, the property was donated to the Choctaw County Historical Society. The

historical society A historical society (sometimes also preservation society) is an organization dedicated to preserving, collecting, researching, and interpreting historical information or items. Originally, these societies were created as a way to help future gen ...

, at the time having only just under 50 members, spent more than 15 years raising money and restoring the structure for use as a

community hall Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

. It is one of only two remaining 19th century churches in the Mount Sterling area, the other being St. John's Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Architecture

The church is a rectangular structure with a

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof ca ...

running the length of the building. It sits on individual brick piers. The exterior is clad in lap board siding painted white. The front façade has two pairs of entry doors under the plain gable-end

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. Each side has four, nine-over-nine

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s with shutters, while the rear has two such windows. The square, pyramidal roofed

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

sits near the entrance end of the building, and is clad is lap board with vents in each side. A small addition, with details closely matching the main building, has been built off the southeast side of the church, with a covered walkway connecting it to the main building. The interior consists of one large room that was partitioned on the south end in the 1950s to create two

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

rooms. The roof support system is unique to southwest Alabama, and consists of a single

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

with vertical

tie rod A tie rod or tie bar (also known as a hanger rod if vertical) is a slender structural unit used as a tie and (in most applications) capable of carrying tensile loads only. It is any rod or bar-shaped structural member designed to prevent the separa ...

s running the length of the building, which is notched to be attached to the ceiling

joist A joist is a horizontal structural member used in framing to span an open space, often between beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members. When incorporated into a floor framing system, joists serve to provide stiffness to the s ...

s and diagonal trusses. This has caused the bottom chord to crack, and wood columns were added underneath the cracked portion. The original

lath and plaster Lath and plaster is a building process used to finish mainly interior dividing walls and ceilings. It consists of narrow strips of wood ( laths) which are nailed horizontally across the wall studs or ceiling joists and then coated in plaster. The ...

walls have been replaced with

drywall Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gypsum board, buster board, custard board, and gypsum panel) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thick ...

, but the original

heart pine Heart Pine refers to the heartwood of the pine tree, which is the non-living center of the tree trunk, while the sapwood is the outer living layer which transports nutrients. The heartwood from the pine tree, heart pine, is preferred by woodwor ...

flooring is intact.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Churches completed in 1859 19th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States Buildings and structures in Choctaw County, Alabama Methodist churches in Alabama Greek Revival church buildings in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Choctaw County, Alabama