Jonesborough works to preserve 150-year-old AME Zion Church — if it can find the deed

As Jonesborough continues to work toward acquiring one of its most historically significant properties, the future of AME Zion Church remains tied to both a complicated change of ownership process and a much larger story about the community's past. Jonesborough Alderman Adam Dickson said the town is still working with the owners of the AME Zion Church to complete the acquisition of the building, which dates to the years following the Civil War. While he could not provide a firm timeline for when the purchase will be completed, he said the town remains committed to seeing the process through. "The town attorney is still working with the AME Zion Church to acquire the property," Dickson said. One of the major complications has been a surprisingly basic one: There is no actual deed for the church building, meaning the town and church must work through the proper legal channels to establish a clean transfer of the property. "We are still focused on the process," Dickson said. "The biggest issue that has come about is there isn't an actual deed to the building, to the church." Dickson said the town has maintained a "very healthy and constructive relationship" with the church while working through the issue. He directed more detailed questions about the legal process to Town Attorney Jim Wheeler. But while the paperwork has slowed the acquisition, Dickson said the historical importance of the property makes the effort worthwhile. His interest in the church's history grew after speaking with Carroll Van West, Tennessee's state historian and a professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. Van West has extensively researched churches and African American communities across Tennessee, and his research helped put the Jonesborough church into a broader historical context for Dickson. The church's location near the railroad is particularly significant, Dickson said. In the years following the Civil War, railroads served as important routes for people moving into and through communities, including newly freed Black Americans and other residents rebuilding their lives after the war. "The fact that this building exists next to the railroad, it alerted him in his research that you would see that's where people were gathering," Dickson said. That history stretches back to the 1870s, making the church part of Jonesborough's story for roughly 150 years. Dickson said its location within what is now the town's historic district makes preserving it even more important. "That building has significance going back to the 1870s," Dickson said, noting its role in "shaping Tennessee's oldest town." The church also represents a piece of Jonesborough's African American history that is not widely represented among the remaining structures in the historic district. Dickson said he is aware of only a small number of properties that carry that particular significance, including the AME Zion Church and the former Warner Institute on East Main Street. For Dickson, preserving the church is about more than maintaining an old building. It is about keeping visible a part of Jonesborough's history that includes the town's anti-slavery and abolitionist traditions, interracial cooperation and the development of its Black community. "There was a community that worshiped there and sought refuge," Dickson said. "So I think any of those reasons would stand out as why this property is truly significant."