Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania, Preservation Project Works to Restore Mount Tabor AME Zion Church

For Carmen James, Mount Holly Springs is more than a location. “When I think about Mount Holly Springs, the first word that pops into my head is comfort,” James said during a recent appearance on WITF’s *The Spark*, which aired January 23, 2026. “It’s like a warm blanket on a cold day… a place where you just feel comfortable.”

Born in Carlisle and raised in Mount Holly Springs, James grew up surrounded by the people, places and traditions that shaped her sense of community. That connection led her to help spearhead the Mount Tabor AME Zion Church Preservation Project, an effort to restore and share the history of a small but significant African American church along what was once a rural dirt road.

For generations, Mount Tabor AME Zion served as the heart of Mount Holly Springs’ Black community. James recalled walking to church as a child, careful not to scuff her Sunday school shoes. “You dressed up to go to church,” she said. “You walked up that dirt road, went into this one-room sanctuary, and you were surrounded by people you grew up with.”

Children were grouped by age for Sunday school, but the church’s teaching reached beyond scripture alone. “That’s where we learned the Ten Commandments,” James said. “That’s where we learned public speaking when you did poems during the holidays. That’s where Harvest Home happened, bringing canned goods to share with the neighborhood and the needy,” a practice of sharing with those in need that reflects charity and hospitality (Matthew 25:35). “At that particular point in time, it was the foundation of the community,” she said. “And ironically, the foundation in our restoration project was the first thing we worked on.”

By 1970, regular services at Mount Tabor had stopped. The church never had running water or indoor plumbing, and it was eventually overtaken by nature. “I would deliberately drive down the street just so I could see the church,” James said. “Eventually, you couldn’t see it anymore because of the overgrowth.”

James had moved to Philadelphia by then, but she said she knew the building was deteriorating. “If I had to put a date on it, I’d say around 1980,” she said. “My mom told me, ‘It’s in really bad shape.'” Preservation efforts would not truly begin for decades, until the right moment arrived.

That moment came in 2016, when local historians Lindsay Varner and Pam Steele began collecting oral histories in Mount Holly Springs. They were encouraged to speak with the Gumby sisters, whose family had lived in the town since the 1800s. “In a small town, trust matters,” James said. “They weren’t sure they wanted to talk to strangers, until the pharmacist told them, ‘These people are okay.'”

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