The cemetery at Oak Grove would suggest that this congregation is a bit younger than other Hardshell churches in the area. The earliest headstones date to the turn of the last century.
The architecture is the board-and-batten vernacular style emblematic of the Crawfordite meeting houses.
The beautiful interior is smaller than most but equally awe-inspiring.
The pulpit, or “the stand’ as it’s known by these congregations, is always oriented at the side of the meeting house.
An infant burial of 1901 is the earliest I could located in the cemetery, but there are many Brantley county pioneer families represented here.
Thanks for all these “Hardshell” church pics Brian. I was never aware of any rural Primitive Baptist Churches until you began to put them on line a few weeks ago. It is amazing at how much alike all these great old buildings are. I wonder if anyone might have any knowledge why they are all so similar or perhaps whether there was a “Master Builder” or two traveling around erecting these buildings in the same way there was for many of our old covered bridges.