Montgomery Hill Baptist Church
E side Hwy. 59 on CR 80, Tensaw, ALMontgomery Hill Baptist Church is significant as one of the two surviving antebellum churches in Baldwin County. It is also significant for its Greek Revival detailing, slave gallery and interior graining, rare elements in Baldwin County architecture.
The area around Tensaw was sparsely settled before the Civil War. Prior to 1840 the few Baptists in the area met at the Holly Creek Union Church. They soon invited Rev. Jacob H. Schrobel to preach for them and he organized Montgomery Hill Baptist Church. Thereafter, the congregation, which varied between thirty and fifty, met at members' homes until a decision was made in 1853 to build a church on a parcel of land donated to the congregation. The building committee contracted with John Blake to build the church for $1,450.
The contract was dated July 25, 1853 and by September 11, 1854 Blake had finished construction of the church. Although Blake had strictly complied with the contract specifications, some minor changes had been made. For example, although the contract originally called for the slave gallery to be supported by two fluted columns, boxed columns were employed. The congregation, numbering eighty whites and twenty-two negroes, immediately began conducting services in the new building. By 1871 the congregation had shrunk to nineteen and did not exceed fifty until 1881. This was due to blacks erecting their own churches and the establishment of other white churches in the area. Montgomery Hill Baptist Church continues service today with some thirty members.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.