Joppa Missionary Baptist Church & Cemetery

A small cemetery sits beside Joppa Missionary Baptist Church

NPS Photo/ Deb Spillman

Quick Facts

Location:

Mammoth Cave National Park, Brownsville Road, Mammoth Cave, Ky 42259

Significance:

Rare surviving properties associated with per-park population.

Designation:

National Register of Historic Places

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

As in many other parts of rural Kentucky, churches in the Mammoth Cave area were mostly Baptist denomination. These churches served as the center of community life. Locals attended weekly church services, weddings, baptisms, homecomings, revivals, funerals and grave decoration days.social interactions with family and neighbors from the area. These churches were also places of social interactions with family and neighbors as they were sometimes used as meeting houses and schools for the communities they served. 

Before Mammoth Cave National Park was formed there were several churches that served the communities in the immediate area of the cave. Joppa Church is one of three remaining structures that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The church was established in 1862. The Joppa Church served the community of Elko and the residents of the Joppa Ridge area. Elko or Joppa community lay between Woolsey Valley and the Green River and between Turnhole Bend and Deer Park Hollow. The very earliest settlers to this area in the early 1800’s were the families of Davis’, Jones’, Houchins’, Blairs’ along with others. These families were followed by others that were important in the early history of the area they are the families of Ages’, Denhams’, Gentrys’, Merediths’, Woods’, Minyards’ McCombs’, Rutherfords’ Simmons’, Smiths’, Sanders’, Parkers’ to name a few.  

In 1880 there was five to six square mile area, with families that had no church to serve them. The first building at Joppa was a log schoolhouse that stood on the grounds where the current church stands today.  

The church was first known as Pleasant Union and was constituted in the log schoolhouse. Wm. Travis Blair wrote of this event and said, “A Baptist minister living in the community held a series of meetings at the home of John Bailey Blair which resulted in the church being formed.” In the early 1900 the old log church was torn down to make way for the wood frame building that is still standing today.  Today the church grounds and cemetery are open to visitors as a day use area. Joppa Church holds a Homecoming every year on the second Sunday of September.