Concord Presbyterian Church - Concord, MO - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

County of church: Callaway County
Locatio of church: CR-245 & CR-282, 3 miles W. of Auxvasse
Date built: 1840

Sign Text:

"Organized in 1833 by the Reverends Hoxey and Gray with a membership of 15. Its original name (Seven Mile Presbyterian Church) was taken from a creek that ran near the church. The current building was completed in 1840. At this time the church was renamed “Concord Presbyterian” possibly reflecting the recent platting of the Concord community (1837).

"The church sits on a large relatively flat lot at the southwest corner of two county roads. The lawn around the church is flat and slopes toward the two roads. There is a small, shed roof, concrete block building located just west of the church. The cemetery is located across the road to the east and is a large flat lot surrounded by wire fencing.

"Constructed in 1840, this gable-end brick church faces east and sits on a large open lot that slopes toward the road at the east and north. The east elevation has two front entrances with narrow wood panel doors topped by Gothic arch transoms. The gable end is lined by a large dentiled cornice with cornice returns. The cornice extends along the north and south eaves and the west gable. The north and south elevations have 4 evenly spaced Gothic arched windows with wood triple hung sash. The east and west elevations have been painted in red. There is a small shed (20th C) or privy off the southwest corner of the building. The 1984 history of Callaway County mentions that the “Red brick church [is] still used for worship services but many changes and additions have been added.” Most of those additions appear to have been made on the interior. The surveyor did not have access to the interior, though a look through the rear door and windows indicated that part of the interior had been partitioned for a kitchen. The exterior has been partially painted, but appears to be largely intact."
~ Rural Churches in Callaway County, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, PDF page 342

"The segregation of the sexes was, as noted by White Cloud Church member Mable Fisher, “the Presbyterian way”19 at least for a time in the 19th century. The tradition of segregated entrances and seating was not limited to Presbyterians, but was common among evangelical churches in the mid-19th century. A 1986 study of two-door churches in Kentucky’s “Inner Bluegrass” region, from whence many early Callaway County settlers came, identified 31 church buildings that retained their two primary entrance doors. To classify as a “two-door” church, the buildings had to have two exterior entrances treated “identically in terms of their placement in the façade, their size, and their architectural styling and details.” In the study, examples were associated with several Protestant denominations including Christian (a.k.a. Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ), Presbyterian, and Baptist churches.20 Extant and current examples of two-door churches in Callaway County also cross denominational boundaries. At least six extant examples remain in Callaway County represented by churches of the Presbyterian (including Cumberland) and Christian denominations.

"This resulted in many buildings constructed with separate entrances and segregated interior seating. Though segregated, in most cases women were not relegated to the back of the church nor was the status of women in the church diminished by providing entrances of a different scale or decoration. The traditions established in the identified Kentucky churches and in the expanding evangelical protestant denominations, were carried further west as new lands opened west of the Mississippi.

"The construction of two-door churches was by no means universal among frontier Baptist, Christian and Presbyterian churches in Kentucky or Missouri. However, there is evidence in historic photographs and the design of extant churches that two-door churches were historically more common in Callaway County than they are today."
~ Rural Church Styles, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, PDF page 21

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