Sixty years ago, when racial segregation was the law, Red Clay Road was the Black section of Cohutta in Whitfield County, Georgia.
"This was a thriving, relatively middle-class community," said town Attorney Todd Johnson. "There were schoolteachers who lived here, attorneys."
And at the center of the community were Andrews Chapel, home to an African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation that dated to the 1870s, and a one-room schoolhouse that educated Black children from first to sixth grades.
"That church was one of the central gathering places for the Black families in that area," said Aaron Prater, whose family was involved with the church for four generations.
Prater began attending the church in the early 1970s after his father, who had been in the military, moved his family back to Cohutta. He said that by that time the church had changed its affiliation to the United Methodist Church.
"We used to have singings there," Prater said. "Choirs would come down from Chattanooga. We used to have dinners for the pastor every month."
He said at that time the church was served by a pastor who also served churches in Calhoun and Fairmount. The congregation and the congregation of Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, another Black church across the street, would meet together the first and third Sunday of each month, alternating which church they met in.
"I worked on that church for almost 40 years, trying to keep that church running," Prater said. "When we moved back in 1973, there was still no indoor plumbing. With the help of the Varnell United Methodist Church, we installed the bathroom and rewired the church. That was a tremendous blessing. My father underpinned the church."
Over the years, as legal segregation ended, many of the residents of Red Clay Road left for other places, and the church congregation dwindled.
"At the end, we had maybe five or six members," Prater said. "I had moved to Marietta by then and was driving up on Sundays."
He said parishioners made the decision to close the church after the preacher who had been serving it left.
The church was closed for some 30 years before the town acquired the building and the schoolhouse several years ago.
Now, town officials are working to preserve the buildings and the history they represent.
Move from Tennessee
Almost 100 years ago, the congregation of Andrews Chapel moved the church almost four miles from Red Clay, Tennessee, to Cohutta using nothing but manpower and livestock.
"It's really amazing to think of what they did and the technology they used to do it," Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick said.
Prater said the congregation did not own the land the church sat on in Red Clay.
"Someone donated the land in Cohutta, so they moved it there," he said.
Dalton Daily Citizen / Cohutta Mayor Ron Shinnick said the historic Andrews Chapel is in basically good shape.Six years ago the Methodist Church, which owned the building, donated it to the town. When town officials received the title, they found it included half ownership of the school building used by the Black students before integration. The school building had been used as a fellowship hall by the Andrews Chapel congregation and Pleasant Valley Baptist Church.
"The kids didn't understand why they went to a different school," Shinnick said. "I've talked to people who were kids back then, Black and white, and they said they played baseball together, hung out together when they weren't in school."
The city acquired the other half ownership of the school building, and now officials hope to develop the two buildings into a cultural center, called the Cohutta African American Civic District, that will preserve the town's Black history and also bring art to the area.
"My aunt, Mattie Prater, taught in the school for many years," Prater said. "She taught all the Black children in Cohutta."
The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation named the Cohutta African American Civic District, which also includes Pleasant Valley Baptist Church, as one of its 2021 Places in Peril.
"Andrews Chapel, with a congregation organized in the 1870s, was constructed in 1902 and moved to its current location (from Red Clay, Tennessee) in 1923," according to the Georgia Trust. "The Old Colored School was constructed in 1930, after a long history of education in the community, and remained open until 1953 when it merged with another school The school building has also served as a fellowship hall for the church congregations."
Plans for the future
The church building still has the bell that came with it when it was moved.
Officials say they envision using the church building as a meeting place and an area for art exhibits and the old school as a place where classes and smaller gatherings can be held.
"Maybe we can host weddings here and things like that," Shinnick said of the church building.
"The building is actually in pretty good shape, especially considering how old it is," Shinnick said. "The only thing that is really deteriorated is in the back. They added a bathroom at some point, and the roof leaks."
Shinnick said the district being named to the Georgia Trust's Places in Peril list was actually a good thing as it brought attention to the site and has helped the town gain some grants to help preserve the buildings.
"This funding assisted in completing conditions assessments of the buildings, undertaking a community assessment to investigate if the local area could support the rehabilitation of the historic properties into an event venue and community space, and contacting a marketing firm to provide an in-depth analysis to determine the financial feasibility of the project," said the Georgia Trust in a news release. "This study was returned with positive results, encouraging next steps to secure the future preservation of the civic district."
Prater said he's happy to see the city acting to preserve the church and the schoolhouse and their history.
"This is something that is very appreciated in the Black community," he said. "There aren't a lot of families left up there. But we are looking forward to it."