Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/03/97

SUMMARY

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South is a historic landmark in Evening Shade. The Gothic Revival church was built between 1898 and 1899 replacing an earlier brick church on the site. The frame T-plan building on a continuous brick foundation, recycled from the remains of the original church, features a square bell tower entrance and double-hung lancet windows. The Methodist church has been altered since its construction on the exterior and interior through modernization efforts. The rear exterior bears the brunt of the renovations, thus the front elevation remains relatively intact in its integrity. Originally nominated to the National Register, the church was deemed Arkansas Register material due to changes applied in the 1960s to the front facade. However, the retention of many of its historic features and its traditional vernacular T-shape influenced by the popular Gothic Revival style qualifies it for nomination to the Arkansas Register under Criterion C.

ELABORATION

Evening Shade in Sharp County was named county seat in the early 1870s, however by the 1890s it was decided that it was inconvenient for constituents to get to the courts due to the length and width of the town, and unnavigable rivers. Thus the county seat was moved to Ash Flat due to its central location. In the nineteenth century Evening Shade was a busy community with a post office, school house, tobacco factory, potter and newspaper, The Sharp County Record.

Evening Shade was also home to the Methodist Church. As the town began to fill, alternate buildings such as barns and private homes used for worship became impractical. There is evidence of a formal house of worship in 1877 as The Sharp County Record reported that the Methodist Church was being plastered. By 1880 there begins to be evidence of a need for urgent repairs to the building. The Ladies of the Church placed an ad suggesting a festival to benefit the Methodist church, however the building had to be closed because of cracking brick walls. The congregation moved to the Christian Church for awhile. In 1881 an inspection determined that the church could fall at any time. This failed to deter the parishioners and they were back at the Methodist church holding services, festivals, meetings and conferences until 1898. Two years before the closing there had been much discussion about a new building and it was feared that its advanced deterioration, or as the Record termed it, "crusty carelessness" would result in heathenism. A committee appointed at the 1897 quarterly conference decided that a new church should be built and in the meantime the congregation would meet in the public school.

Money was raised through a subscription, and in 1898 property to the south of the brick church was purchased for new construction. Several other projects initiated by church members helped raise money for painting, nails, windows and doors. Bricks, floor joists, sills, studding, sheeting, flooring and stove flues came from the brick church house. Construction was completed and services held in the new church in 1899.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Paysinger, Vernon and Eva Lee. History United Methodist Church Evening Shade. 1988. Pp. 12-28.

Moore, Caruth Shaver. Early History of Evening Shade and Sharp County. 1979.

Information submitted by Sam Thompson, Evening Shade, Arkansas. 1997.