St. Marks Presbyterian Church (Rogersville, Tennessee)
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St. Marks Presbyterian Church is a historic
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
church in
Rogersville, Tennessee Rogersville is a town in and the county seat of Hawkins County, Tennessee, United States. It was settled in 1775 by the grandparents of Davy Crockett. It is named for its founder, Joseph Rogers (pioneer), Joseph Rogers. Tennessee's second oldest ...
. Its building was added to the list of
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in March 10, 2006.


History

The congregation was established in about 1875. Rev.
William Henderson Franklin Rev. William Henderson Franklin (1852–1935) was an American educator, minister, journalist, and school founder. Franklin dedicated his life to the education of Black children in rural Tennessee during the time of racial segregation. He founded S ...
was its first minister, serving from 1883 until 1926. Franklin was also the founding president of Swift Memorial Junior College in Rogersville, with which the church was closely associated. Swift students and faculty were required to attend worship at St. Marks twice each week. The church building is located at the junction of N. Hassen and W. Kyle Streets in Rogersville. The site was purchased some time after 1885 for the campus of Swift Memorial Junior College. The church was built in 1912. It is a wood-frame building on a
brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
foundation with decorative patterned
wood shingle Wood shingles are thin, tapered pieces of wood primarily used to cover roof shingle, roofs and walls of buildings to protect them from the weather. Historically roof shingle, shingles, also known as shakes, were split from straight grained, k ...
s, a characteristic of
Shingle Style The shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture. In the shingle style, Engli ...
architecture. It has a high peaked roof with a tower on one side of the roof peak.
Stained-glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
windows are a prominent feature of the
sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...
. There are two front entrances to the building; the western door was originally for women and the eastern door was for men. Men and women formerly sat separately during services. Swift Memorial College closed in 1955 due to financial problems. St. Marks Church and other properties associated with college were sold to Hawkins County the following year, but the St. Marks congregation was permitted to continue using the church building. A
day care center Child care, also known as day care, is the care and supervision of one or more children, typically ranging from three months to 18 years old. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(ren), childcare typica ...
operated in the church basement between 1973 and 1979. With dwindling membership, the St. Marks congregation stopped holding regular worship services in 2000 and dissolved in 2002. Its building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2006 for its importance to the local African-American community and as a "fine example of 20th-century Shingle Style architecture". The Rogersville Historic District, which the church property abuts, does not include any buildings in the Shingle Style; this architectural style is uncommon in
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 coun ...
.


See also

* Price Public Elementary School


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marks Presbyterian Church, Rogersville, Tennessee Churches completed in 1912 20th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Presbyterian churches in Tennessee Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Shingle Style church buildings Buildings and structures in Hawkins County, Tennessee 1875 establishments in Tennessee Religious organizations established in 1875 2002 disestablishments in Tennessee African-American churches in Tennessee Rogersville, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Hawkins County, Tennessee Shingle Style architecture in Tennessee