- Church
- Early
- 1823
- DeKalb County
- Location approximate
Macedonia Baptist Church (1823)
Macedonia Baptist Church on Panola Road, organized in 1823, is believed to be DeKalb County's oldest church, according to the DeKalb History Center.
The record
The DeKalb History Center's list of historic sites calls it 'DeKalb's oldest church, established 1823,' and its county timeline says the church was constituted that year, a year after DeKalb was created. A 2023 History Center post marking the church's 200th anniversary says the congregation organized about three miles northwest of its present site, built a church at what is now 3420 Panola Road in 1829, and meets in a building erected in 1938; the adjoining cemetery has graves from the mid-1800s. All of these claims come from the History Center, and this research found no independent primary source for the founding date. The church is not on the National Register. The site lies in Land Lot 44 of the 16th District, land given out in Georgia's 1821 land lottery.
Today: 3420 Panola Rd, where the congregation has worshipped since 1829; the current building dates to 1938.