Stone Church

Commonly called the Old Stone Church, this building began construction in the summer of 1850 after its members had met in an old log cabin one-quarter mile south of the present structure from 1837 to 1845 and then at a site one mile south selected in 1845, where a forty-by-seventy-foot shed known as Dogwood Campground stood until 1850. The structure was built over two years from stone quarried from the Stubblefield Farm and from the base of White Oak Mountain, with timber taken from dense local forests, at a reported total cost of only $1600.00. Pews made for the Dogwood Campground building were moved into it, and during the War Between the States the benches were reportedly placed facing each other and used as fodder troughs for Union army horses, leaving tooth marks still visible on them. Although the official name Stone Church was not attained until 1912, military dispatches and field reports during the War Between the States era cited that name, and in that period both Confederate and Union armies used the building as headquarters, a hospital, and a major point of reference. Aside from that era, it was used only as a church until membership dwindled in 1920, when it was sold to a Methodist group, and then in 1923 to a group of individual citizens. The gospel hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," with words by E.A. Hoffman and music by A.J. Showalter, was performed here for the first time under the leadership of Ref. Mark Matthews, minister of the church. After the 1920s the building saw only sporadic use until 1995, when the Catoosa County Historical Society began acquiring it for restoration with support from the Catoosa County Government and the State of Georgia; plans were finalized by architect Ross Andrews, a grant was obtained, and a thorough renovation by society members and others was completed by October 1997. Today the building houses a museum of artifacts from the War Between the States and other early periods and is open to the public on designated days and hours.

Georgia · United States