Jones Temple AME Zion in Waynesville, North Carolina, Marks Historic Church Building and Congregation

Jones Temple AME Zion Church stands on the edge of Waynesville’s historic Pigeon Street community in Western North Carolina. According to 828newsNOW, the small white church has served 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. The report is part of an ongoing 828newsNOW series, Historic Churches of Western North Carolina, which profiles sacred spaces that began as small mission chapels or neighborhood gathering places.

The building predates the congregation. It was originally constructed in 1855, miles from its current location, and served as the first sanctuary for Waynesville Methodist. When that congregation relocated uphill in the 1880s, the original frame church was moved to Pigeon Street and given to a newly formed Black congregation. That congregation became Jones Temple AME Zion, part of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination, which the report says was founded in 1796 and has long been central to Black religious life across the South.

In 1898, members laid a cornerstone for their own church, which the report describes as a sign of both growth and permanence. The present sanctuary was completed in 1922, reflects that era and remains largely unchanged today.

According to the report, Jones Temple has been more than a place of worship. It served as a gathering space, a source of stability, and a center for leadership and support during eras when Black residents were largely excluded from civic life elsewhere. Pastors and congregants preserved oral histories, church records and traditions that might otherwise have been lost, a practice that keeps the community’s story available to later generations (Psalm 78:4).

The report says the congregation has grown smaller in recent decades as older members died and younger generations moved away from the area. Even so, Jones Temple continues to hold services. They are streamed each Sunday on the church’s Facebook page.

Source: Read the original report