Restoring history

Group working to repair iconic Briceville church

May 4, 2022 by G. Chambers Williams III

Built in 1888 by Welsh immigrants, the Briceville Church has stood as a sentinel overlooking the former coal-mining community in western Anderson County for more than 134 years.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the white frame building with its two stately towers, one on each side, has seen its share of Coal Creek history.

According to the historic marker posted at the base of the church driveway along Highway 116, the church’s cemetery includes the graves of 22 of the 300 miners killed in the 1902 Fraterville mine explosion and the 1911 Cross Mountain mine explosion.

Regular services were last held in the building in the early 2000s, when it was still the Briceville Methodist Church, said Daphne Windham, director of the Briceville Public Library and one of the trustees who oversee the church property.

Since then, it has been minimally maintained and used occasionally for weddings, funerals and a few other community events.

But now the wooden building has fallen into a state of disrepair and deterioration, and major renovations are needed to preserve and restore it, Windham said.

To help raise money for the renovations, there will be a spaghetti dinner July 9 at the Briceville Elementary School, sponsored by the Briceville Masons’ Crystal Lodge No. 616, said Nathan Dison, a native of the town who is a former city council member in Rocky Top.

“We’re looking to raise upwards of $1,000 just from this event, which will also include a cake and pie auction,” Dison said.

Because the church’s front doors needed to be replaced, the trustees found someone to donate new doors last fall. But when a group of volunteers with carpentry skills went to install them, they found that the supporting structure around the doors was decaying, and needed replacing as well.

That wasn’t all, however, Windham said. As the work crew looked more closely, they found there was decay under the bases of the doors, as well as under both of the towers. All of that needed to be replaced to bring the building back to health.

At least three volunteers have been donating their time and skills since November to try to complete the necessary work, but it’s going slowly, and there’s no money to pay for materials. Some of the workers have been paying for building materials out of their own pockets.

“We were just going to replace the doors,” said Wes Benton of Lenoir City, one of the three volunteers who were on hand last week working on the restoration. “But the more we tore off to install the new doors, the more we found that needed to be done first. We didn’t know the bases of the towers were in such bad shape.

“Years ago, someone built concrete steps to replace the wooden steps leading to the front doors, but over the years, water collected between the stairs and the building, causing the wood behind the stairs to rot.”

Before installing the new doors, the volunteers plan to replace both of the wooden porches that used to lead to the church’s front entrances, Benton said.

“Our goal is to build period-correct wooden porches on the front,” he said.

The basement of the church building was not dug out until sometime in the 1950s, and there are Sunday School classrooms and restrooms down there, Benton said. That’s also where there once was a coal-fired furnace that was used to heat the building.

“When we got started, there was still a ton-and-a-half of coal in the basement for the furnace,” Benton said.

The workers are using some vintage barn wood in some parts of the building that they got from a friend who was tearing down an old barn, Benton said.

The church building itself was a marvel of 19th century architecture, built entirely using hand tools, he said.

Trustees of the church are hoping that other donations can be raised to help pay for the renovations.

Progress of the work is being updated frequently on the Briceville Methodist Church Facebook page.

The church is no longer affiliated with the Methodists, but many people still refer to as “Briceville Methodist Church,” Windham said.