Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Carpenter Gothic church in Port Gibson, United States.
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church is a single-storey wooden church built in the Carpenter Gothic style, the rare Mississippi example that led the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson to deed it to the Rodney Foundation in 1969. Its board-and-batten walls, steep gabled roof and pointed-arch windows are cut and assembled from timber rather than carved stone, as Gothic Revival forms were in masonry churches.
The building was constructed in 1868 in Rodney, Mississippi, reflecting 19th-century religious building traditions. It was relocated in 1983 to its current location at Grand Gulf Military State Park in Port Gibson.
The church's name comes from its 1868 dedication to the Sacred Heart, and it is also called the Confederate Memorial Chapel. In the 1870s the parish ran its own school, charging tuition the community could rarely afford. By 1937 only seven regular worshippers remained, and worship was discontinued.
You can visit the church when exploring Grand Gulf Military State Park. The building is easily accessible on foot and open for those interested in viewing the historical architecture.
The building was moved whole from Rodney, a town that had shrunk to seven regular worshippers by 1937, when the parish closed. The Diocese of Natchez-Jackson had already transferred the deed to the Rodney Foundation in 1969 because the church was considered a rare Mississippi example of Carpenter Gothic. The state took it over in 1983 and re-erected it at Grand Gulf Military State Park.
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