Church buildings were a community center on the Arkansas frontier and in Northwest Arkansas some of the early buildings and congregations live on.

Church demographics have changed, and as people move to larger population areas, the historic buildings are in danger of being forgotten, historians said.

Cane Hill was one of the earliest settlements in Washington County, said Bobby Braly, executive director of Historic Cane Hill.

Preservation has become more common in the last few years, but without a concentrated effort the historic buildings will soon be gone, Braly said.

The first Presbyterian Sunday School in Cane Hill was established in a log cabin 185 years ago in 1826. It was followed by Cane Hill School in 1835, then Cane Hill College, which started as a seminary for Presbyterian circuit riding preachers.

The Cane Hill Presbyterian Church was built in 1891, and worshippers still gather at the church just off Arkansas 45.

The round of the logs split in half and lined up to form the floor is still visible under the church, said T.A. Sampson, a church elder. The building’s arched wooden ceiling was meant to represent the hull of a boat taking the saved to heaven. Wooden slats once segregated the black and white congregation and pulleys for kerosene lamps once hung in the ceiling.

The history is almost palpable in the quiet as she cleans for Sunday services, Sampson said.

“You can almost feel the presence of all the people who have been here before. It has such a soul to it,” she said.

Money deeded to the church has kept the repairs up, Sampson said. The building is owned by the congregation, not the denomination, and the congregation is small and growing gray. Buildings need to be preserved before they become a historical marker, Sampson said.

“Once it’s gone you can’t replace it,” she said.

Down the road from the Presbyterian church sits a brick building with a crumbling roof. The 1834 Methodist Manse in Cane Hill is likely one of the oldest buildings standing in Northwest Arkansas — possibly the oldest — that has not been moved. Initially the building was used as a church, then a residence for Methodist clergy. Clay bricks for the building were fired nearby, something that makes the building unique, Braly said.

During the 1862 Battle of Cane Hill, it was the Union Army headquarters. Over the past 60 years, it has been a private residence. Historic Cane Hill purchased it at a tax sale and plans to restore it.

“It wouldn’t have lasted five or 10 more years. It would have just been gone,” Braly said.

Preservation is a form of living history, Braly said.

“It’s the story of everybody’s past,” Braly said. “Their everyday lives are vested in these buildings.”

Mount Hebron Church in southwest Rogers was founded as a log structure in 1867, said Glenn Jones, Mount Hebron Church and Cemetery Historical Preservation Association board member. A second building, probably an expansion, was built in 1875. The second building burned and the current church was built in 1904.

People built what they could afford, Jones said. The church would have been very modern for the time with a central potbellied stove, hooks in the ceiling to hold kerosene lanterns, a double front door and a back door and large windows. Members identified it as a Methodist-Episcopal Church South.

The last service was held in the now-vacant building in 1975. Improvements are planned in the spring.

Vandalism is the biggest challenge facing the church today, Jones said, and he’s fielded complaints about the building still standing. Removing it would be a shame, Jones said.

“It would be like selling off Pea Ridge Military Park,” he said.

Churches were important to pioneer society, said Susan Young, outreach coordinator at Shiloh Museum of Ozark History.

“Historically the church and the school and the post office were the heart of your town or your community,” Young said.

In the pioneer era, churches maintained the civility of a community. Many had simple architecture: four walls and a wooden floor. Excessive embellishments were eschewed by some early Scott-Irish settlers as smacking of “idolatry.” Cumberland Presbyterians and Primitive Baptists were common denominations. Sunday School associations or traveling preachers filled in where churches were thin.

It was a long, dirt road to Fayetteville from Son’s Chapel, even in recent memory, said Trisha Beland, historian at Son’s Chapel. Land was donated for a log cabin chapel in 1852 and the building has always been used as a community building, she said.

The Rural Builders Association, a women’s group, formed in 1922, raised the money to build the current stone chapel which was finished in 1939. Today the group meets on Tuesdays to quilt, and the chapel is used for the occasional wedding. An early morning Sunday School met in the building until 1996, Beland said. A school was on the grounds once, and the county poor house once stood across the street from the current chapel, probably on or near the site of the original building, Beland said.

Falling Springs Church, west of Decatur, is known for its first Friday 7 p.m. gospel sing, said Wil Gardner, pastor. People from surrounding communities gather, sing and have potluck dinner. Falling Springs has no denominational roots; a school could have been there before the church was built in 1889, Gardner said.

“Folks have a need to come together to worship. That church has been there for a lifetime for many of the people,” he said.

Little Flock Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1843, said Carl Staten, church elder. The original church was located in or near Little Flock Cemetery, but the congregation built a new one in about 1900. At its base, the church is log construction, Staten said. The faith and principles of the congregation has not changed, he said.

Foot washing services are part of the tradition at the church, but the services are simple, Staten said. Children are raised on the pew with their parents.

“God is our focus,” Staten said.

Oakley Chapel United Methodist Church, at 203 S. Promenade Blvd. in Rogers, had to make a transition from its roots as a country church to a community church as the city of Rogers grew up around it, said Shane Pair, pastor.

“This church was way out in the country 10 years ago,” Pair said.

Oakley Chapel was organized in 1887, and the historic white chapel that connects to the brick fellowship hall dates from 1896. Five years ago, before Pair arrived, the chapel was moved and attached to the new building.

The pews and stained glass are historic, but the move married heritage and function, Pair said.

A country or community church has the distinction of not just knowing the faces of regular attendees, but knowing their names and their needs, Pair said. He compares the smaller church size to the “Where everybody knows your name” tag line of the television show “Cheers.”

“At the end of the day, that’s what we do,” he said. “It’s a church where you do matter.”