Another beautiful rural church now falls into the Almost Gone But Not Forgotten category. She could still be saved, but time is running short.

The church you see above sits on Jones Chapel Road, a remote dirt road in Wilkes County near the Savannah River. It is now known as St. John’s Baptist, but we believe this may have originally been Jones Chapel Church—the namesake of the road. Several questions remain unanswered: Was this building first constructed as a white church, later transitioning to African American ownership? Or was it always an African American congregation?

From the architecture, we lean toward a late 1800s origin. The footings and floor supports are consistent with construction in the 1890s, and the pews, made from single planks of heart pine, are typical of that era. Georgia’s historic resource survey (GNAHRGIS) lists a religious building on the site as early as 1889, and another in 1920 on four acres of land.

What we know for certain: St. John’s Baptist has a cemetery with burials dating from the 1920s through 2002. Records also show that in the 1930s, a school operated here, remembered by an 87-year-old former student as “Jones Chapel School.” The overlap of names, road, church, and school leaves a puzzle that is still unsolved.

Our best guess? Jones Chapel began as a white church in 1889. Around 1920, it became St. John’s Baptist under African American ownership, with the cemetery and school established soon after.

Sadly, the roof is now failing, and without intervention the building will collapse. As with so many others, this history risks being lost forever. We share it here to honor its place in Georgia’s story—and to ask: do you know more about Jones Chapel? If so, we would love to hear from you.