New Salem Baptist Church

The church began as a Union Church, open to Black congregations of every denomination, and took the name New Salem only in 1897. Accounts date its construction to 1866 or to 1886. It is a Gothic Revival building of brick made in Isaac Dockery's kiln, and inside are the pews and pulpit that the carpenter Lewis Buckner built for it. It is the oldest standing building in Sevierville and a National Register property since 2023, still used by a congregation.

What the plaque says

New Salem Baptist Church Isaac Dockery, an African-American artisan, along with African-American families of Sevierville, built New Salem Baptist Church in 1866. It is Sevierville's oldest surviving building and the county's oldest brick church and only historic African-American church. Built as Union Church for African-American congregations of all religious beliefs, its name was changed in 1897, when it became New Salem Baptist Church. On July 24, 2023, the church was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. An important part of the community's 19th century heritage, it is still used today.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Newfound Gap — 19 mi
  The lowest drivable pass through the Smokies, at 5,046 feet on the Tennessee and North Carolina line, where Roosevelt dedicated the park in 1940 and Kuwohi's Cherokee name was restored in 2024.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 21 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 21 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Cades Cove — 22 mi
  A Smokies valley ringed by mountains, once the Cherokee hunting ground of Tsiyahi and later a farming community of 685 people, kept by the park after its families were bought out.

More markers nearby

• John Porter McCown — 0.7 mi
• The McMahan Indian Mound — 0.8 mi
• Isaac Dockery — 0.9 mi
• Lewis C. Buckner — 2.0 mi