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The year it turns 100 years old, historic Wilders Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church on Amerine Road is to be moved to the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend.

"It is unusual to have a church in an historic village," said Heritage Center Director Bob Patterson. "It is even more rare to have an historic minority church."

"It's a sound little building," he added.

Most historic churches have been turned into businesses, dismantled or are too large to move, he explained.

The simple little white clapboard church will sit in the very middle of the center complex of historical villages. "It will really stand out because it will be the only painted structure at the center. All the others are natural wood," he said.

The church is 20-feet 3-inches across and 35-feet 7-inches long.

"It still has the bell tower and the bell, which is very unusual," Patterson said as he pulls the rope to ring the bell. Most old church bells have been removed by the churches or scavengers.

At the Heritage Center the church will join other historic structures as part of an historic village -- including Montvale Station stagecoach stop from Maryville, cabins, setoff house, sawmill, wheelwright shop, blacksmith, smokehouse, corn crib, cantilever barn, outhouse and even an underground moonshine still.

Church officials contacted Patterson about donating the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a church of black Americans, to the Heritage Center, which is located off Tenn. 73 in Townsend.

The church is located at 811 Amerine Road, Maryville, behind Asbury Centers.

Hopes are to move the church in mid-January when the land dries out. There have been so many recent rains that a structure of that weight would mar, Patterson said.

The plan is to relocate the church in two sections -- the roof (which will be cut off) and the main portion of the building.

Once placed on the site, the modern changes to the building will be removed -- bathrooms, heaters, shelving and carpet, taking it back to the original wood floor.

The Heritage Center has some long pews to install in the church. The pews are so long that there will not be a center aisle down the middle of the church to the pulpit.

"This will probably be the last structure we put on the property for the forseeable future," Patterson said.

A.M.E. church history

According to information from A.M.E. Zion Mid-West Area Presiding Bishop Enoch B. Rochester: "The Tennessee Conference of the A.M.E. Zion Church was organized in 1868. The church currently identified as Wilders Chapel in our records was previously known as Vestal Chapel, as part of a ministry with Wallace Chapel, which our parlance identified as a circuit.

"Migratory patterns of the people who were served by Wilder Chapel has diminished the need for a weekly service or the appointment of a pastor. The cemetery, adjacent to the church, is used as needed by former members and their relatives," the letter adds.

The site remains the property of the A.M.E. Zion Church.

The late Sammie McBath and Lola Henry of Knoxville and some written records and burial records on headstones provided a history of Wilders Chapel.

It states:

1906 -- Charter given by Tennessee Conference of A.M.E. Zion Church through its connectional affiliates. Land donated by the Rorex family as a permanent site as a cemetery to bury members of the Henry and Rorex families.

1910 -- Cornerstone of Wilders Chapel building laid.

1924 -- Oldest headstone of a burial is Alfred Means dated Nov. 10, 1924. However, there are unmarked headstones in the oldest section of the cemetery which some of the descendants believe were buried prior to 1900.

1925 -- Ms. Sammie McBath recalled attending services as a young girl with her parents.

1956 -- Ms. Lola Henry, whose father and mother-in-law were regular members, began membership upon marriage to their son, Jesse. She can recall attending on a regular basis.

1971 -- Ms. Henry and Ms. McBath concur that sometime in late 1971, regular weekly church services ended due to fading membership as the result of deaths, poor health and changing membership.

1972 -- Burial of last key church member, Ms. Mollie Henry, in September 1971.

Between 1972 and 1994 occasional homecomings, burials and decoration functions were held on the grounds.

1992 -- Wilders Cemetery Association Inc. was established to provide oversight and management of cemetery grounds.

Margaret McBath, daughter-in-law of the late Sammie McBath, provided the information to Patterson.