| Completed in 1861, just before the onset of the Civil War, China Grove Methodist Church is one of Mississippi's distinctive expressions of rural, vernacular, ecclesiastical architecture. The church is simply constructed but rendered architecturally significant not only by the rarity of pre-Civil War rural churches in the state but its unusual architectural features, and by its outstanding architectural integrity. China Grove does not have an active congregation. The construction of the slave gallery at China Grove may be unique among pre-Civil War Mississippi churches, because the gallery is constructed like a double-tiered porch with gallery-level columns extending to the ceiling and with an exterior doorway opening into the gallery stairway and stairway railing extending beyond the bottom step and being mortised into the doorway surround. The creation of a vestibule effect by the erection of horizontal matched-board panel, or screen, is another unusual feature. The rhythm created by the use of matched boards for walls, ceilings, church pews, and the decorative panels in the pulpit adds architectural interest to the interior. This building was listed on the National Register on 5 July 1984. It is included in "Mississippi Piney Woods: A Photographic Study of Folk Architecture" (1976) (pp. 14, 20). |