Mount Zion Church Day 30

By Scott Beveridge

As this 30-day photography project evolved this month at historic Mount Zion Church, a few people who care about this place urged me to go in search of the old log building where its congregation formed in 1800 in nearby in Fallowfield Township, Pa.

The Internet is littered with with information about the historic Lutheran congregation, some of which inaccurately indicates the original church still stands and is rumored to be one of the oldest such structures in Pennsylvania.

That church building, which hosted the first conference of Lutheran ministers west of the Allegheny Mountains on Oct. 18, 1812, was dismantled in recent years on what became the Ivill Farm, said Sandy Mansmann, coordinator of Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation. She said there is a monument regarding that conference near where that church once stood off Kevech Road.

One of the first settlers in this area, Christopher Stacker, sold an acre of his property in 1800 to the Societies of the Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, Washington County deed records show.  Each society built a log church there. Neither of the buildings survive, but there is a cemetery on the site that contains the graves of many former area residents, Mansmann said.

The Lutheran group took sole ownership of the acre of property and sold it in 1857 to Alfrey Rial, and it stayed in his family for several generations, according to records at the Washington County recorder of deeds office. 

The congregation relocated to the small redbrick Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township about 1846, and it has remained vacant for about two decades.

(The name of the Stacker family shows up in local records with different spellings and it's is listed on a tombstone at Mount Zion's cemetery as Stacher)

The marker on Kevech Road in Fallowfield Township, Pa., commemorating the first conference of Lutheran ministers west of the Allegheny Mountains. 

Mount Zion Church Day 29

The long shadows of a spring sunset tonight give a glorious appearance to the closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 28

There isn't any running water at the nearly forgotten Mount Zion Church or its cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa., requiring mourners to bring their own to plant and refresh flowers on graves.

The property along Cracker Jack Road doesn't even have a trash can, leaving the wind or human hand to toss to the side artificial graveyard decorations.

Visitors, including those who were not invited here, have also left behind beer cans and bottles, car tires and a lot of other trash in the weeds and bushes that hug the property.

And just a few hundred feet away a newer illegal garbage dump holds a mattress among other ugly things that spoil the landscape.

This is how we live in rural southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mount Zion Church Day 27

As Wednesday will bring an end to this 30-day photography project I think I'll miss these daily visits to the historic, closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Today, I packed a short step ladder in my car in order to peek in that back window there, a photo of which was posted here yesterday. 

Mount Zion Church Day 26

This closeup of a window serves as another example of the neglect historic Mount Zion Church faces in Nottingham Township, Pa., as April draws closer to May when this 30-day photography project is completed.

Mount Zion Church Day 25

The most handsome tree at Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 24

There are unusual finds in the cemetery behind Mount Zion Church and you can find some of them by scrolling through the archives of this 30-day photography project.

Here's another one: This random unmarked boulder apparently sits atop a grave in the Nottingham Township, Pa., cemetery on Cracker Jack Road.

Mount Zion Church Day 23

The grave of Janet Gricar Zelensky at historic Mount Zion Church Cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa., suggests she had a fondness for a black cat before her death in 1995 at age 42.

Mount Zion Church Day 22

A view of the side entrance to Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa. That is one spooky tree. 

Mount Zion Church Day 21

A graveyard daffodil processed with Flickr's new newsprint filter at Mount Zion Church Cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 20

Peeking through the window next to the side entrance to historic Mount Zion Church it's plain to see the last people who worshiped here walked away two decades ago leaving the cross on the alter wall behind the pulpit.

Later the building in Nottingham Township, Pa., was rented to someone who used it for storage, and he left behind a mattress leaning against a wall, among other things. A small part of it can be seen in the lower, left corner of this photograph.

For more information on the history of this Lutheran church, whose founding members were among the first settlers in the Ginger Hill area of Washington County, click here. Some of the information there proved to be incorrect. Refer to Day 30 of this project.

It's interesting that the First Conference of the Lutheran Church west of the Allegheny Mountains was established at the original log Mount Zion Church, which was built nearby. The congregation relocated to this brick building in 1846, the attached article states., and the old church was converted into a home.

Mount Zion Church Day 19

Phillip Seighman is the gravedigger at Mount Zion Church cemetery in NottinghamTownship, Pa.

Today he finished a burial by covering with funeral flowers the grave for James E. Rice, a New Eagle mason who died Wednesday at age 80. 

Seighman said he performs about six burials a year in the small cemetery along Cracker Jack Road.

Mount Zion Church Day 18

Happy Good Friday from historic Mount Zion Church cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa.

This sculpture of Jesus adorns a tombstone on the grave of Sgt. Randolph Wayne Metz, who died in 1998 just shy of his 77th birthday.

He served in World War II in which he became a prisoner of war. 

Despite those obstacles, the tombstone is etched with this epitaph: "I never had it so good."

Have a nice Easter.  

Mount Zion Church Day 17

Viewed from the lens of a smartphone camera aimed through a window into the interior of Mount Zion Church, the rural building almost appears as if its congregation was just there last Sunday for services.

Upon closer examination, though, the broken light fixture and peeling paint on the wall indicate the small, plain house of worship has been abandoned in Nottingham Township, Pa.

The details that are unique to the interior are the box pews, which are more prevalent in England and New England, and a rarity in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The paneled walls eliminated winter drafts in unheated meeting houses

Mount Zion Church Day 16

It's your turn to write the caption for this photo of a grave in Mount Zion Church cemetery in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 15

For several days now I've been attempting to photograph images without much luck through the windows of Mount Zion Church.

While the building in Nottingham Township, Pa., is old and seemingly abandoned, it has modern, double-pane windows that pose a problem for cameras.

The inner panels of glass reflect surreal images of my camera, fingers and face over top of those of the pews, which are of a style that is rare to this part of the United States.

Mount Zion Church Day 14

It's interesting how someone anonymously decorates random graves in the cemetery behind Mount Zion Church on Cracker Jack Road in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 13

An older woman showed up today with two others as I was ready to leave Mount Zion Church.

She looked at me when we passed each other, smiled and said, "Isn't it beautiful here?"

"Yes, but it's a bit neglected," I replied.

She introduced herself as Betty Baxter as she walked with a cane to a family grave. I told her my name and mentioned something about this photography essay.

It's the first day this month that I have seen more than the occasional woman with an unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth and walking her dog in this cemetery along Cracker Jack Road in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mrs. Baxter went on to say the caretakers of this historic property once took good care of the small brick church that, today, needs restoration work.

"How long has it been closed?" I asked her.

"Oh about 20 years," she said. "It would be nice if they could get someone in there."

My sentiments, exactly.

Mount Zion Church Day 12

The grave of John Keeney, a veteran of the Grand Army of the Republic, is in need of some attention in the cemetery behind Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 11

In a show of disrespect for the dead, people decided this week to do some "parking" in the cemetery behind the old Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

And, they left behind the evidence of that as litter in the form of a used condom, empty pack of Camel Menthol cigarettes and a plastic bag containing more than two dozen empty laughing gas cartridges.

Mount Zion Church Day 10

Burials are still being performed in the small cemetery behind the closed and seemingly abandoned Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Heavy equipment arrived this week to bury Ronald M. Hostovich of Carroll, who died December 30, 2013, at age 71.

He has been interned beside his wife, Ann Dolly Hostovich, who preceded him in death in 2009, according to their tombstone.

The cemetery association is separate from the nonprofit organization that once held services in the church.

Mount Zion Church Day 9

The Weygandt family has an old name in the Monongahela, Pa., area as some of its members were among the earliest settlers of Washington County, Pa., following the American Revolution.

But unfortunately for Cornelius Weygandt Sr., he only lived to be 25 years old and was buried under an elaborate white marble tombstone behind the now-closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township.

Above his name on the relatively-intact tombstone was carved a beautiful rose to mark his 1869 death, noting he survived for 5 months and 22 days beyond his last birthday.

Below his name was set in stone the inscription, "In a full age like as a sholk of corn cometh in his season."

The phrase is loosely taken from Job v. 26 in the Bible as a reference to a holy man who reaches his death at a full age as does a ripe ear of corn.

It's among a number of antique inscriptions and symbols on graves here, including one on the heavily-weathered tombstone, at rear, right, which displays a hand, palm forward, fingers and thumb directed to Heaven.

Mount Zion Church Day 8

The fallen tombstones appear to be more a victim of time rather than of vandalism at the closed and historic Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

The building along Cracker Jack Road, however, is a victim of neglect.

Mount Zion Church Day 7

Here rest the remains of Sarah and Joseph Agostoni and Frederick Pfau at an old tombstone being swallowed up by two large pine trees in the cemetery behind the closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

Mount Zion Church Day 6

The grip of the Earth appears to be eager to pull down the old, closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

A wild grapevine crawls up a scraggy tree there, and the weed has also climbed onto the church's roof and down the brick toward the front door to the building dating to the mid-1800s along Cracker Jack Road.

Another ignored vine has spread up and across the back of the building, and it has encircled the entire roofline.

I should take a pruner with me when I stop by the place tomorrow to take a photo of another interesting tombstone.

Mount Zion Church Day 5

The activity at the closed Mount Zion Church dating to the 1800s in Nottingham Township, Pa., has been limited to a few new burials over the past winter at the cemetery to its rear.

But the church property has been encroached from all sides by the modern world.

Across Cracker Jack Road from the church, a Marcellus Shale natural gas underground pipeline has been under construction, requiring the company to stack large bales of hay on the ground, material needed to reclaim the property its scarring.

To the left of the church's facade sits a new fenced-in pad containing machinery needed for the booming gas industry in Washington County.

And older fenced-in yard to the church's right appears to date to a closed coal mining operation.

Trespassers who illegally ride all-terrain vehicles often visit those areas, while the busy Route 136 cuts across the property to the rear of the church, near where that two-lane road intersects with the Mon-Fayette Expressway.

Mount Zion Church Day 4

The small cemetery behind the old, closed Mount Zion Church on Cracker Jack Road in Nottingham Township, Pa., is a great place to stroll and admire the creative ways people decorate the graves of their loved ones.

Mount Zion Church Day 3

Judging from the color and style of the carpeting inside this double-door outhouse, it appears the 1970s was the last time the congregation spruced up its relief station behind the now-closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa.

It also looked today with the outhouse doors wide open as if many years have passed since anyone has needed to use its facilities.

As someone who grew up in an area when people in certain places still relied on outdoor plumbing, this is the first outhouse I've seen with indoor commode seats.

Stop back tomorrow as this 30-day photography project continues at this church dating to the mid-1800s.

Mount Zion Church Day 2

To the back of left side of Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa., a two-door outhouse survives not far from the first grave in the cemetery.

Signs above the doors label which door the men and ladies were to use when nature once called at the closed church built in the mid-1800s along Cracker Jack Road.

Tomorrow, as this 30-day photo series at the church continues, I hope to wiggle open one of the doors to show those following this project what the inside looks like.

Mount Zion Church Day 1

For many reasons the closed Mount Zion Church in Nottingham Township, Pa., keeps luring me back there to take photos and walk around its small, ancient cemetery.

That said I am going to make every effort to return to the property on Cracker Jack Road every day for 30 consecutive days this month to photograph something that catches my eye.

I don't know anything about church's history other than it was built in the mid-1800s, and do expect its story will be revealed here as this series plays out.

But most importantly, I want to draw attention to the building's deteriorating condition in hopes something will be done to preserve the redbrick structure before it disappears from the landscape.

                                                                                                              Scott Beveridge