St. Andrews is another architectural jewel in Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter’s hometown of Plains. The church was built in 1907 of molded concrete blocks that were created on the building site.  They were very popular for foundations and garages, and in rural areas they were used for small commercial buildings, gas stations and churches, but rarely for a church this size.  The interior is extraordinary as well as you will see from the gallery photos below.

The story of St. Andrews Lutheran is closely linked to that of St. Marks Lutheran (also on our website), which was originally located a few miles away in the community of Bottsford.  There are very few Lutheran churches in rural Georgia. Most of Georgia’s early pioneers were English and Scots Irish.  They were predominantly Baptist and Methodist with Presbyterians running a distant third. The early settlers of Bottsford were immigrants of German descent from the Dutchforks area of South Carolina, located around what is now Newberry and Lexington Counties. They had migrated to South Carolina as a result of the state’s efforts to lure Europeans to the back country with offers of free land in the mid 1700’s.

St. Marks was the mother church, but at the turn of the century, the railroad came through and it changed the dynamics.  The town of Plains began to grow and the Lutherans now wanted a  church in town in addition to the Bottsford church.  St. Andrews was built in 1907, and for a time St. Marks hosted church the second and fourth Sundays and St. Andrews hosted on the first and third. In the early 60s, they began to meet at the Plains location, with homecoming at Bottsford on the fourth Sunday in July.  Rosalyn Carter’s family had deep roots in the Lutheran church, primarily based on her Wise ancestors. Although she was raised in the Methodist church, she attended Lutheran services with her grandmother, Rosa Wise Murray.

The Wise family was very prominent in Plains. The patriarch of the family was a doctor born in the mid-1800.  Three of his sons became doctors and started the Wise Sanatorium, which was a ground breaking medical facility. The first location for the hospital was on the second floor of the building that now has the big Jimmy Carter sign on main street. The second location of the hospital is now the Lillian G Carter Health and Rehabilitation Center.  She was a graduate of their education program, and Jimmy was born there.

Another prominent Lutheran family in Plains is the Jennings family.  In the nearby Lebanon cemetery, there are 54 Wise interments and 27 Jennings.  We are grateful to Brenda Jennings for much of the above history. 

Today Plains is a quiet farming community with a population of less than 600 and well worth a visit. The Plains High School, built in 1921 and attended by Jimmy and Rosalynn is now the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. Just a few miles to the south of Plains is the boyhood home of Jimmy Carter.   The Boyhood Home & Farm has been perfectly preserved as it was before electricity was installed in 1938. HRC has produced a PBS video about President Carter and his devotion to teaching Sunday School at the nearby Maranatha church for 40 years.  That episode can be accessed HERE.