Ramah Presbyterian Church

If you like to take a back route to avoid the I-77 traffic, you may have taken Ramah Church Road. This lovely winding road is named for the white frame Ramah Presbyterian Church, located amid trees and farmland about a mile from Huntersville. The church, whose congregation began meeting around 1783, sits across the road from a peaceful cemetery. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is a log hut built as a fellowship hall in 1935.

During the late-1700s, a group of Scots-Irish Presbyterians met at the site to organize a congregation.  For its first years, the group gathered under a brush arbor that they gave the Biblical name Ramah Grove, after a town named Ramah located near the frontier between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Around 1795, like many early rural congregations, they built a simple log church. Mecklenburg Presbytery recognized the congregation that year, and John Carrigan was named the first pastor. He was to serve until 1805.

In 1820, the log church was replaced by a simple unadorned frame building, which had entrances on three sides and an exterior stairway leading to the slave balcony above the sanctuary.

Ramah Presbyterian Church (Nancy Griffith photo)

The present church was built in 1881, and echoed the simplicity of the 1820 structure. Resting on a stone foundation, it exhibits a basic, simple church design.  Its gable-front form, simple one-board vertical trim and gable returns (gables that come to a point and then double back), echo the Greek Revival style (most prominent from 1820-1850), while the arched double-hung windows resemble the Italianate style (1840-1880). The building itself reflected the congregation’s desire for a simple style of worship. The interior of the sanctuary had a balcony like that of the earlier church. Like the earlier churches, this new one was built with materials and labor provided by the members.

The 1881 building has been renovated at least twice since it was built.

During the first renovation, done in the 1920s, a basement was added for a furnace, and new steps were built up to a new entry portico. The existing slave balcony was divided for Sunday school rooms. The second renovation, done partly to return the church to its original style, was done in 1972-73. While some modern features like air conditioning, electrical fixtures, and insulation were added, others were just renewed, including windows, interior and exterior shutters, and the roof. The plaster in the sanctuary was renewed, the carpet was replaced, and a new beadboard ceiling was added.  The balcony partitions were also removed, and the pews were refinished. The result managed to enhance the comfort of the church, while keeping the charm and beauty of the older building, providing a place to worship in simplicity and dignity.

The church building, along with the cemetery and log fellowship hall, were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. In granting this status, the trust called the church “an intact example of a church design popularized during the middle decades of the nineteenth century,” and recognized it as “one of only two other frame nineteenth-century churches remaining in the county.” The other is Providence Presbyterian Church, which is somewhat older.

The cemetery is directly across the road from the church. It contains approximately 500 headstones and is entered through an iron gate with granite posts, reportedly built before the Civil War. The gate was originally part of a stone wall, whose rocks were probably taken to be used to pave Ramah Church Road. Many of the early markers, which have since been moved, were little more than fieldstones and gave no personal information. The first headstone belongs to Benjamin Brown, who died in 1801. Early headstones were usually simple stones with the deceased’s name, dates of birth and death, and perhaps a simple floral design. Later stones became more elaborate, and included 11 obelisks erected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some reports indicate that fifty slaves were also buried there.

The second historic building on the church grounds is a log building built in 1935. During the 1930s, there was a rustic revival in the United States, and small log buildings were built at churches and other places. In 1935, the men of Ramah Church decided to put up a one-story log hut where they could hold their Bible classes. It is built with round logs, and features a gable-front design. The roof is made of cedar shakes, and there is a large fieldstone chimney on one side of the building. The interior of the building also remains intact, with exposed log walls and a wide-board floor. It is currently used for Bible classes and as a fellowship building. Similar structures are the Lingle Hut in Davidson and the hut at Mount Zion Presbyterian Church in Cornelius.