The Backroads Traveler: Two Historic Churches near Helen, Georgia

The Crescent Hill Baptist Church.

 The little mountain village of Helen, Georgia owes its life to tourism. In early 1969, some Helen businessmen were searching for a way to bolster the village's sagging lumber economy, possibly by finding a way to entice tourists to drop a few bucks in the town as they passed through on their way to the mountains. They consulted with an artist named John Kollock, who had some ideas. By fall of that same year, Helen had reinvented itself as an Alpine village, straight out of Bavaria. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

The town is bracketed by two historic churches. On the southeast is Crescent Hill Baptist Church, built in 1872. It was originally known as Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, but has been used by Baptists since 1921. The church currently has about 150 members, and services are held each Sunday at 11 a.m. The pulpit, pews, and stained glass are all original.  This is one of the prettiest country churches I've found in my travels.

 

 

On the northwest edge of the town is the Chattahoochee Methodist Church. . Founded in 1860, the present building was built 1888–90 and looks the same as it did when it was the setting for the 1951 film I'd Climb the Highest Mountain, starring Susan Hayward, William Lundigan, and Rory Calhoun.

Like the Crescent Hill church, it is still in business. A wedding was in progress on the day I made this photograph.

 This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byway of Georgia.

About the photographs: The Crescent Hill Church was photographed on September 26, 2006 with a Canon EOS 5D (Classic) and a Canon EF 24-85mm lens. For the Chattahoochee Methodist Church, which I photographed ten years later, on October 29, 2016, I used a Canon EOS 6D and a Canon EF 28-105mm lens.

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel photography     Canon EOS 5D (Classic) camera     Canon EF 24-85mm lens      digital photography     Canon EOS 6D camera    Helen, Georgia    Canon EF 28-105mm lens     Historic churches