The history of the Zion Hill Congregation itself is quite interesting and must remain a vital part of any history of the building itself. In 1878, when Reverend Lawson Reed (circa 1840 - April 11, 1924) first came to Nacogdoches from Shreveport, he found no organized Baptist Church serving the African American community. After leaving the white church, the black members of the Baptist denomination worshipped with the Presbyterian and the Methodists brethren at the Union Church, located next to the St. Paul Cemetery plot in the southeast part of Nacogdoches. At first, Rev. Reed joined his fellow Baptists in worship at the Union Church and even led in services there. His goal, however, was the formation of a separate Baptist church in Nacogdoches. Under his inspired leadership in 1879, those of Baptist persuasion began to worship regularly under a brush arbor between Mound and Logansport Streets. When the approach of winter forced the group to look for other accommodations, two of the members of the little group, Frank and Ellen Walton, gave two acres of land for the erection of a building. The Zion Hill congregation's first home was a one room frame structure located immediately west of the present Old Baptist Cemetery on Park Street. 1879, therefore, saw the establishment of the first organized Baptist Church for African Americans in Nacogdoches County. From this original congregation at least two other Baptist Churches in the city, little Zion and the Sunset Galilee, were to take their beginning. The charter members of the group in 1879 were Frank and Ellen Walton, Annie K. McClain, Jim and Annie Rigsby, Harriet Moore, Hattoe Vaughns, Velma Williams McCullough, and the Reeds.
The cornerstone of the Zion Hill First Baptist Church building reads: "Erected in 1914. J. C. Sweeney, Pastor." The building committee, named on the side of the cornerstone, included Charlie Clay, Sr., Rich McBroom, Jeff Powers, R. Horace Scott, and John Townsend. Although nothing is known about the pastor whose name appears on the cornerstone, one can easily trace the members of the building committee and the continuing influence of their descendants in the Zion Hill congregation down to recent time. Without a doubt, the moving force in the congregation in 1914, as it was in 1879, was Rev. Lawson Reed. He had given up the pastorate but had continued his active membership despite his work with the Sabine Valley Association of the Missionary Baptist Church. Reed had become one of the greatest organizers of his day and has been credited with the founding of 55 Baptist Churches in the East Texas area and with the conversion of over 3000 members. The architect for the Zion Hill building was Dietrich Rulfs (March 6, 1848 - February 15, 1926). A native of Oldenburg, Germany, Rulfs moved to Nacogdoches from Germany in the late 1878s and brought with him high Victorian architecture. Before his death in 1926, Rulfs literally transformed the visual heritage of the city. The key figure in bringing Rulfs and the Zion Hill congregation together was Mr. John Schmidt. Schmidt was also the patron of Charlie Clay, an important member of the Zion Hill congregation and the leading figure on the building committee in 1914. Clay worked for Schmidt as a trusted employee at the Nacogdoches Wholesale Grocery Company. Rulfs supplied the architectural ideas, his carpenter brother William Henry Rulfs supplied technical talent, and Schmidt financed the whole endeavor.
Nothing in particular needs to be said about the procurement of materials used in the structure; all of the materials were readily available at any of the major lumber companies in Nacogdoches at that time. The entire structure, except for its brick piers and underpinning, is of wood. The siding on the outside is the older version of "105" horizontal lap siding with the "OG" groove; the inside is almost exclusively beaded board. Rulfs' rather ingenious use of these available materials does deserve mention. For instance, around the west front he used one piece 1 over 1 lite windows, but he arranged them in vertical patterns to create a feeling of height. These windows did not raise and lower but were made to pivot from the middle to allow for ventilation. He grouped these windows four on top and four on bottom, separated them by four small squares of stained glass, and to complete the top, provided a semicircular arch containing three trefoils. As in European church architecture, Rulfs used combinations of key numbers. At Zion Hill, the numbers three and eight are used everywhere. For instance, there are three towers, each with three openings on the second level; three trefoils, and octagonal lantern on top of the structure and eight sided roof on the west tower. The original pews had trefoil designs, also.
The structure has undergone virtually
no structural modifications since its completion date in
1914. This is due primarily to the fact that in recent
decades the membership of the church has been on the decline
and nothing substantial in the way of revision could be
undertaken. In the 1970s the congregation voted to replace
the structure with a new one. Many people, both within and
outside the church, were horrified by this suggestion.
Because of the incredible building costs at the time, this
alarming possibility was delayed. In 1975, the congregation
voted to restore the church and spent $25,000 doing so. The
wood shingle roof was replaced, the building was completely
air-conditioned and centrally heated, repaired, and then
repainted inside and out. The Nacogdoches County Historical
Commission and the Nacogdoches Bicentennial Committee
cooperated in this restoration effort. The local chapter of
the Daughters of the American Revolution paid for the
structure to be marked as a Recorded Texas State Landmark.
In 1987, when the congregation got an opportunity to
purchase a new sanctuary on East Stallings Drive, the Zion
Hill building was then used by the Community Action
Organization for some years.
A Plea for PreservationThe Center for East texas Studies has posted two VR Panoramas of Zion Hill.
Zion Hill Baptist Church is
currently in a serious state of neglect and is in need of
major repairs. A plea
for preservation
recently appeared in the Nacogdoches Daily
Sentinel.
Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery is located on the west side of Park Street near the Lananna Creek Bridge. This small cemetery appears on the Hoya Land Office's 1922 plat map of the area as Lot 8 of Block 5, and is identified as a "Colored Cemetery." The oldest grave in the cemetery is that of Julia Harris, which is dated February 8, 1897. The small cemetery has many unmarked graves, which seems to indicate that the graveyard is much older than that date. Just to the west of the cemetery is the original location of Zion Hill Baptist Church, which was built there in 1897. The Zion Hill Baptist Church is the oldest Black congregation in Nacogdoches. The History of the Church and cemetery are intertwined. The congregation of Zion Hill, under the direction of Reverend L. Reed, originally met under a brush arbor on what are now today Mound and Logansport Streets. The approach of winter forced the congregation to find better accommodations. Frank and Ellen Walton, two members of the church, donated two acres of land, and the church built a one-room frame structure there. The congregation began to bury their dead just to the east side of the church. Zion Hill continued to bury their dead there until 1945, the date of the latest grave. Buried there are three World War I veterans, as well as two members of the Order of the Eastern Star. The Reverend R. L. Reed, the founder of the Zion Hill Baptist Church, is also enterred there. The cemetery fell into neglect until the early 70's. The City of Nacogdoches decided to extend Park Street across the Lananna Creek to University Drive in 1971. Shortly thereafter, Lottie Smith Myers Upshaw saw the cemetery in its state of disrepair and began an unrelenting effort to have the city assume custodianship of the cemetery. Her efforts finally succeeded. Since then the City of Nacogdoches has erected a fence around the graveyard and assumed its upkeep. Today the cemetery serves as a monument to the early congregation of Zion Hill Baptist Church. Buried among the early members of the oldest black church in Nacogdoches is its founder. The graveyard is a fitting memorial to that chapter of black history.
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