Tyronza couple to preserve old church

TYRONZA, Ark. (AP) - It’s still surreal to walk through the halls and sanctuary of the Tyronza Methodist Episcopal Church South.

Three years after the few remaining members packed up and moved to their sister church in Marked Tree, remnants of their time there remain untouched.

Hymnals, still opened, are scattered throughout the sanctuary. Pens sit on the baby grand piano as if someone had been taking sermon notes only a few hours earlier.

There are some signs of wear, like the honey bee nest near one of the massive stained-glass windows, but for the most part, the building, which was constructed in 1928, still holds its allure.

James Gillmore hopes to sustain that allure. He bought the church building last spring as a second home for him and his wife Sherry, who live close to an hour south of Memphis in Faulkner, Miss.

Gillmore, who has been busy restoring the building during the last year, received some good news to start 2015 - his new “home” was being considered to be put on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I’m excited,” he said. “I know the building will be preserved, and no one will be able to change the way it looks. It’s an integral part of the town.”

The building isn’t on the register yet. It will be considered by the state review board on April 1, but Mark Christ from Arkansas Heritage said he would be surprised if the church didn’t receive the nod.

“This building in Tyronza is a classical revival style of architecture, which I think you’d have a hard time finding many like it in this area,” Christ said. “It really is a beautiful building.”

Aside from being an honor, placement on the National Register of Historic Places qualifies the owner to receive a number of tax credits and grants to offset the costs associated with rehabilitation.

Many improvements have already been made, but Gillmore said there are a number of things he still hopes to restore to the way they originally were, especially the stained-glass windows, which line the walls of the sanctuary.

Each window was donated by a family at the church, and the names of those families are inscribed on plaques below each window. Below one, the plaque reads “DR. E.C. McDANIEL AND FAMILY.” At the time, McDaniel was Tyronza’s only doctor, and he was a close personal friend of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Gillmore said the building is full of similar small details of significance to the small town.

Gillmore can’t help but smile when telling the story of how he and his wife stumbled upon the building. They were looking to buy a home closer to President’s Island in Memphis, where Gillmore works four days a week. While browsing real estate listings, Sherry’s phone froze, and the town on the screen was Tyronza.

The church, located at 129 Church St., was one of the only listings for the city, and the Gillmores immediately fell in love with the unique structure, The Jonesboro Sun (https://bit.ly/1FzV1MZ ) reports.

“I called the real estate agent on Wednesday, and by Friday, I had already signed the papers,” Gillmore said with a laugh. “The way I look at it, God told us ’this is where your going.’”

They don’t live there all the time, but Gillmore stays there four days out of the week because it’s so much closer to his job.

Occasionally, he said people from around town will stop to ask him what he plans to do with the stained-glass windows. Most of those people are the children and grandchildren of old church members who donated the windows.

“Their faces always light up when I tell them I’m going to keep the windows and restore them good as new,” Gillmore said.

The church would join several other Tyronza landmarks on the National Register, including the city’s water tower and the downtown commercial historic district.

Gillmore is making the basement his living space, but the rest of the building - like the pastor’s office still filled with old biblical commentaries and church records - will remain untainted.

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Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, https://www.jonesborosun.com