Turner Chapel AME Church, Marietta, GA 30060

Turner Chapel AME has a rich history that dates back to the early 1800s.  Even though it is one of the oldest established churches in Marietta, Georgia, it continues to evolve based on the needs of the community it serves. African American residents of Marietta began their first religious meeting shortly after the settlement of the town.  This was a group of 37 persons of all denominations who desired a place to meet for prayer and worship.  The meetings were held in a log cabin on Task Street (no longer exists) near an abandoned Coco-Cola bottling plant and a tobacco cigar factory.  Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church is the second oldest AME congregation in Georgia.  It was established in 1865. In 1839, the Presbyterian Church vacated their building on the north east corner of Waddell and Lawrence Streets in downtown Marietta. The Presbyterian Church offered the use of the building to the little group which had grown from their original number of 37. In 1854, this Marietta Square location was purchased by freed men and slaves and was called Trinity Church for Negroes and Indians.  The purchase was made and paid for while the free Negroes and slaves were still members of the Marietta Methodist Church. During that time the church operated under the direction of the First Methodist Church which supplied its pastors until the end of the Civil War in 1865.  During the Civil War Trinity’s church was used as a hospital for the Union soldiers.

In 1865, Rev. Henry McNeal Turner moved to Georgia and established St. Phillip’s Monumental A.M.E. Church in Savannah as the first AME congregation in Georgia. Thereafter, he began organizing AME churches throughout Georgia. Upon his arrival in Marietta in 1865, he organized Trinity Church for Negroes and Indians under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and became Trinity’s first Negro Pastor. Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church (later renamed Turner) was the second AME congregation in Georgia.

On July 6, 1867, the trustees of the Marietta Methodist Episcopal Church transferred the property deed to the trustees of Trinity AME Church for the sum of ten dollars.  The trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church were: Humphrey P. Reid, Lemuel Bennett, John T. Burkhalter, George N. Lester, George R. Gilbert, William Phillips, Rhodolphus W. Gable, James Y. Gaut and James F. Nutting.  The trustees of Trinity were: Simpson Jones, Peter Simmons, William Evans, Washington Horace, Thomas Fair, Baileus Towns and Thomas Jackson. In 1891, under the leaderships of Rev. Dan Strickland, the church was rebuilt and the name was changed to Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in honor of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner.  An eight-foot strip of land on the west side of the church was purchased on July 28, 1899 from Mrs. Dorothy Stephens while the Rev. W. A. Fountain, Sr. was Pastor.  In 1902, pews were purchased under the leadership of Rev. W. A. Lawrence. The choir loft was added during the pastorate of Rev. J. A. Hadley in 1906 using a $450 grant the church received from the federal government for using the church as a hospital during the Civil War.