| Chartered in 1828 as the "Presbyterian Church of Petit Gulf." Present structure erected 1832. Shelled by the USS Rattler, Sept. 13, 1863. Acquired by the U.D.C. in 1966. Mississippi's most distinctive surviving Federal style church. It was recognized by the Mississippi Heritage Trust as one of the 10 most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi in 2003. This building was individually listed on the National Register on 6 February 1973, on 22 acres of land that also contains the Rodney Cemetery and some Confederate earthworks. The church building was later included as element #5 in the Rodney Center Historic District, which was placed on the National Register on 29 August 1980. It was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 24 Jan 2020. It is included in "Look to the Rock: One Hundred Ante-bellum Presbyterian Churches of the South" (1961), "Shrines to Tomorrow" (1971), "Historic Architecture in Mississippi" (1973) (p. 62), "Architecture of the Old South: Mississippi – Alabama" (1989), "Historic Churches of Mississippi" (2007) (pp. 138-139), and "Buildings of Mississippi' (2020) (p.59, ND70). [HABS MS-29 (1936)] |