NAVASSA, N.C. — A historic chapel in Navassa is being restored. It’s one of the oldest structures in North Carolina and was built in the 1860s by the Gullah Geechee, who were enslaved on coastal rice plantations.
What You Need To Know
Reaves Chapel was built in the 1860s by the Gullah Geechee
The Gullah Geechee were enslaved and brought to North Carolina to work on rice plantations
Once restored, the chapel will serve as the northern hub of the Gullah Geechee corridor
“If you don’t capture history,” said Al Beatty, president of the Cedar Hill/West Bank Heritage Foundation, “then history has a tendency to fade away and die or it is written by the people that survive.”
That’s exactly what would have happened if the Cedar Hill/West Bank Heritage Foundation and Coastal Land Trust hadn’t acquired Reaves Chapel.
It was used as a place of worship until 2006, when it was abandoned by the African Methodist Church. Since then, it’s fallen into disarray, crumbling and unable to withstand the weight of its own structure. It’s been in desperate need of a renovation, a project that the organizations happily took on.
“This is history that really is a part of the nation,” said Jesica Blake, associate director of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust. “So this is an opportunity to be able to save a piece of real history that will tell a story that is really a part of America.”
Once construction is completed, it’ll serve as the northern hub of the Gullah Geechee Corridor, which runs from southeast North Carolina through Northern Florida.
“We do not have a lot of distinct buildings or historical buildings in the corridor. This will be the anchor of the northern end,” Beatty said. “It’s one of the oldest buildings around, like I said, 1860s, and a majority of the churches from that era have been demolished, or destroyed, or torn down, and we thought we needed a structure to distinguish that.”
The site will also be another hiking trail for North Carolina.
“This is gonna also be a part of the Gullah Geechee green heritage walking trail, and that’s gonna run all the way from Southport all the way through here and past the cemetery and also past the original site where the church was located,” Beatty said. “So you’ll be able to walk that all the way through Navassa on the walking trail and biking also.”
For Beatty, who grew up attending Reaves Chapel, seeing this restoration and shedding light on the history of the church means everything.
“History has been written by folks who do not look like me, and they have covered up a lot of history,” Beatty said. “And we are trying to expose this for what it is and let the public, the people, decide for themselves and not try to sway them one way or another by history, so I feel good about that.”
They are just three weeks into construction. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2022.
The Coastal Land Trust is still fundraising for the project and needs another $100,000 to help the chapel be completed.
You can learn more about the Gullah Geechee here.
You can learn more about Reaves Chapel here.
This Coastal Land Trust page is not managed by Spectrum News. Visit the site for more information on how the fund works and its rules.