A couple of recent posts have concerned Ellis Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, founded around 1881 in the New Hope area of northwest Wilson County. Rev. Crockett Best was its first pastor. The sanctuary, built in 1911 on land given by Hilliard and Fereby Rountree Ellis and extensively renovated in 1977, has been empty for many years.  It recently went on the market.

On a recent visit to Ellis Chapel, I found one of the glass double doors at the entrance kicked in and completely shattered. I stepped through into a small vestibule. On either side, there are bathrooms added in perhaps the mid- twentieth century. Glancing up at a square cut into the drywall, I saw the building’s original weathered siding.

Inside the sanctuary, the walls have been stripped to the studs. Its stained glass windows, which bear (or bore) a small plaque naming the donating family, mostly have been  smashed. 

The peeling ceiling reveals a soft blue-green layer of paint underneath a white coat.

Triple-six aside, there is surprisingly little sign of vandals inside. The rear wall here appears to have been the original back of the church; the rectangle at right was a window. A roof leak has done serious damage to a section of the ceiling. Other than ceiling fans and broken pendant lamps, little remains of the sanctuary’s adornment.

This fireproof brick was made by Aetna Brick Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

The cornerstone has been pried out, exposing the corner of the bathroom additions.

Scattered on the ground, a torn, snow-soaked Bible and a broken finial printed with praying hands.

The Book of Amos.

One of three gnarly old oaks that shade the front of the church. 

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, February 2025.