In the post–Civil War decades of the nineteenth century, the blocks east of Monterey Square became Wharton's Freedman's Town, one of two neighborhoods where the community's substantial African American population concentrated. Chase designed the new church building for one of Wharton's oldest African American congregations, Mother Zion Baptist Church. It is notable for the diagonally patterned screens that shield the inset nave walls.
Gerald Moorhead et al., "Mother Zion Baptist Church", [Wharton, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-WD6.
Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 449-449.
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.
