Last week’s highlight was the discovery of the rusted tin, charred beams, and old brick that mark the site of Barnes Primitive Baptist Church, a congregation formed by freed slaves shortly after Emancipation. Yesterday, I received digital copies of three precious Polaroid photographs of Barnes Church taken in 1977 when the church closed and moved south to Watery Branch Church Road in Wayne County.

In the first photo, Barnes Church’s long-time pastor, Elder Kemmy A. Sherrod, stands with Deacon Douglas Barnes between the church’s two entrances. Elder Sherrod, a Wayne County native, was a grandson of Jack and Cassie Exum Sherrod and also pastored Turner Swamp Primitive Baptist Church in Eureka, N.C., and New Center Primitive Baptist Church of Reidsville, N.C., and served as moderator of the Turner Swamp Primitive Baptist Association and Durham Primitive Baptist Association.

The second photo, taken over the long hood of a car, shows the church’s southern elevation. That’s the chimney whose broken base we found standing in the woods.

The third hones in on the church’s simple, porchless, front-gable form. Fire consumed Barnes Church after it was vacated, and we found no sign of its plank siding, doors, or windows.

My unending gratitude to Leonard P. Sherrod Jr. for sharing these priceless photographs with me and to his cousin Cheryl Sherrod Pope for granting me permission to post them here!