Parker's Chapel "Old Taylor Field"

Located .5 of a mile north of here is the Parker's Chapel Community. The community began shortly after the Civil War when descendants of ex-slaves Sam and Lucinda Groves-Coakley migrated to "Taylor's Old Field." They were followed by Lucy Perdue and family from Virginia, and later by the Dye, Hobdy, and Gibbs families. Growing tobacco and strawberries provided the settlers a livelihood. Built circa 1870, the first church at Old Field also served as the community's first school. The community and church received its name from the Rev. James Parker, the first pastor. In 1906, Parker's Chapel Church hosted the East Fork Missionary Baptist Association. Parker's Chapel School was built in 1923 with assistance from the Rosenwald Fund. The school closed in 1960. Until 1965, when the Portland schools desegregated, African-American children were bused to Gallatin. In the mid-1940s, the Flower and Garden and Community Improvement clubs of Parker's Chapel were organized.