Third Sunday - July, 2013

Claiborne County, Mississippi 

Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church - 1868

Considered the most outstanding of the few remaining Carpenter Gothic buildings in Mississippi, the Sacred Heart Church was built in the town of Rodney in 1868. The church is a wood-frame, board and batten three bay structure with lancet windows and features a central tower with wooden pinnacles and crenelation. The interior walls are plaster, with a wood floor and ceiling. Services were discontinued in 1957.

Around 1870, the Mississippi River began to change its course, and soon the once busy port of Rodney found itself inland some three miles from the river. Years of decline followed, and the town's population dwindled. The abandoned church building was moved from Rodney to Grand Gulf Military Park in 1983. The restored church is open to the public.

By 1940, when Marion Post Wolcott took this picture of the church in its original location, Rodney was well on its way to becoming a ghost town. (Library of Congress)

The interior of the church around 1900. It looks much the same in 2013.

 Grand Gulf Military Park, Port Gibson, Mississippi - 2013