2011 Survey

No longer serving an active congretation, the church is now (September 2012) managed by the City of Nacogdoches’s Historic Sites Department. Since 1986 several local groups raised the necessary funds to reroof the structure, stabilize the exterior walls, and begin interior repairs, especially water damage in the sanctuary area. The structure is not yet open to the public unless by arrangement due to ongoing restoration. Plans are to transform the building into a community space and museum about the Nacogdoches African American community.

Click here to access the 2011 Survey Form. Form revised by Jake McAdams in 2012.

1986 Survey Information

• Address: 824 N. Lanana
• Date: 1914
• Category: Contributing
• Block: 5
• Lot: 12-A
• Description: 1-story; wood frame with beveled wood siding; brick foundation with basement; irregular plan with two corner towers; intersecting pyramidal hip-and-gable roofs with wood shingles, flared eaves, cornice return, octagonal dome with fixed window atop the main roof, towers and dome with metal finials; corners of the church have blind pilasters; small entry porch with gable roof with bargeboards resting on simple boxed wood columns over brick piers, double wood entry door paneled with arches transom above, three trefoil lights in the transom; windows are wood frame double-hung and center pivot awning type, 1/1 and 2/2 lights, windows around the sanctuary have lancet arch heads with colored obscured glass, other windows have obscured glass; basement windows are 3/3 awning type; rear entry to the basement with double wood panel doors, ornate brackets under the eave.
• Significance: Local department store owner, John Schmidt, sold the land for the Zion Hill Baptist Church as well as financing the cost of its construction with no down payment to its African American congregation. The well-known Nacogdoches architect, Dietrich Rulfs, designed the church combining Victorian styling with Gothic Revival detailing. This monumental structure in the black community was completed in 1914. It became the third church building occupied by the membership.