Cades Cove Methodist Church

Cades Cove Methodist Church is a small frame church and cemetery on the Cades Cove Loop Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the fifth marked historic stop on the 11-mile one-way route, just beyond the Primitive Baptist Church turnoff. Make it a brief history stop: look inside when the church is open, then walk around the burial ground. The full loop takes a few hours, so this fits easily alongside the other old buildings.

The white clapboard church has two front entrances and a little bell tower. The doors invite a question: that layout was often used to separate men and women during services, but the Cades Cove congregation did not use it that way. Inside are plain pews and a pulpit; visitors also mention an old upright piano. If you like photographing historic buildings, frame both doors and the tower from the front, with the cemetery in view for context.

Methodist circuit riders visited the cove in the early 1820s, and the congregation dates to 1830. Early services met in settlers’ homes until they built a log meetinghouse in 1840. The present frame church replaced it in 1902. Rev. J.D. McCampbell, a blacksmith and carpenter who later served as the minister, was said to have built it for $115 in 115 days.

A dispute that split the wider Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 also divided the cove congregation. The breakaway group built Hopewell Methodist Church near the south end of Hyatt Lane in 1880. That building is gone, so don’t confuse the separate Hopewell congregation with this surviving church.

The cemetery holds families including the Tiptons, Feezells and Sparkses. It is likely the cove’s second-oldest church burial plot, and descendants still use it, so treat it as an active cemetery rather than a display. The church itself is also occasionally used for worship.