Ebenezer Primitive Baptist Church (circa 1829) and Cemetery (circa 1880)

7325 Roberts Drive, Dunwoody, GA

The first church established in Dunwoody was Ebenezer Primitive Baptist Church in 1829, which is located at the corner of Spalding Drive and Roberts Road. Before the congregation submitted a petition to become a Primitive Baptist Church, Sunday meetings were held in church members’ homes. Some say the church was named after the founder of Dunwoody, Major Charles Dunwody, who is buried in the church’s cemetery along with other soldiers of the Confederacy.

Over the years, four church buildings were built. The first one, made of wood, was on the northwest corner of Spalding Drive, diagonally across the road from where the church stands today. The current church was built on the foundation of the third church, which was built on the site of the second church. The story passed down through the church was that Confederate soldiers burned a bridge over the nearby Chattahoochee River to keep Union soldiers at bay. Union soldiers took boards from the first church to build a pontoon bridge.

The first members of the church were from families with surnames including Warnock, Ball, Jett, Martin, Holcombe, Abernathy, Roberts, Dalrymple and Adams. Citizens of Dunwoody and surrounding areas drive today on streets named after those families.

Primitive Baptist churches do not allow musical instruments in church and instead rely solely on the human voice in what is known as Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp singing uses four musical notes, called shape notes. The notes, fa, sol, la and mi are each represented by a shape. Singers sit in a hollow square with each of four sections represented by different voice ranges, tenor, alto, bass and …. The song leader or leaders stand in the center of the square.

Today, the church is still active, and a sign on the grounds welcomes visitors to Sunday service at 7:00 PM.