Greenwood County · Marker 24-17
Good Hope Baptist Church
U.S. Hwy. 25, just S of its intersection with N. Riley Rd., Hodges
Front inscription
This church, founded about 1870, has its origins in Walnut Grove Baptist Church, founded in 1820. Walnut Grove included both white and black members before the Civil War, but after the war black members asked for letters of dismissal to organize a new church. Good Hope was founded by David Agnew, Doc McIntosh, Henry Moon, Wesley Posey, and others, with Rev. W.L. Evans as its first pastor.
Reverse inscription
Good Hope Baptist Church grew to more than 250 members by 1900 under its first two ministers, Revs. W.L. Evans and H. Donaldson. The first church here was a frame building constructed soon after 1870; it was destroyed by arson in 1966. The present church, a brick building, was constructed in 1967-68 during the pastorate of Rev. M.B. Norman.