Editor’s Note: Historic Churches of Western North Carolina is an ongoing 828newsNOW series exploring the sacred spaces that helped shape mountain communities. Many of these churches began as small mission chapels or neighborhood gathering places. Their histories reveal how faith, culture and daily life intertwined across Western North Carolina. By documenting these buildings and the congregations connected to them, we hope to preserve part of the region’s church history and honor the people whose stories continue to shape the mountains today.
WAYNESVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW.com) — On the edge of Waynesville’s historic Pigeon Street community, a small white church quietly holds one of the longest surviving stories of Black faith in Western North Carolina.
Jones Temple AME Zion Church has stood for generations as a spiritual anchor for the town’s historic African American community and remains one of the oldest church buildings still in use in Waynesville…