#46 Church Buildings
Although churches often take their name from their community, Arkansas provides many examples where the community took its name from the church. As settlers moved into the rugged country of the Ouachitas and the Ozarks, the first thing many did after constructing their own houses was to build a place of worship. And as more settlers arrived, frequently the church would become the center of the growing community, serving as a civic center and even a town hall. And sometimes the church then gave its name to the town, as we can see in Bethel Heights in Benton County, Macedonia in Cleveland County, Watson Chapel in Jefferson County, and Little Flock in Benton County. Sometimes the story gets confused, such as in the case of White Hall in Jefferson County. One story attributes this name to the striking white paint of the local church, but another tale credits an itinerant preacher named White and an early settler named Hall. So the next time you pass by a church with the same name as its community, you may well wonder which gave its name to the other.
Daniel Boice
University of Arkansas at Monticello