For about 30 years, the faithful have come by the busloads to see the artwork of St. Mary's Episcopal and Holy Trinity Episcopal, Ashe County's Churches of the Frescoes.
A prayer request notebook at the back of St. Mary's testifies that the churches are active places of worship first and tourist attractions second.
"Prayers answered," someone wrote recently. "He's out of ICU and the hospital! Still needs to regain strength but he is alive and improving."
Prayers, hymn singing, homilies, fellowship and outreach to the community are
hallmarks of the small churches. Together, they form the Parish of the Holy Communion, with a congregation of about 75 worshipping on alternate Sundays at St. Mary's in West Jefferson and Holy Trinity in Glendale Springs.
But as they lift people's spirits, the churches also deal with a level of foot traffic that most mountain churches never see.
"We have expenses created by the fact that tens of thousands of people are trucking through there," said Garrett Briggs, a church member. "We're grateful for it, and feel that what we call the frescoes ministry is extraordinary, but it is wearing on the church."
The tour buses started coming almost as soon as artist Ben Long finished at St. Mary's in 1977 and at Holy Trinity in 1980. The frescoes themselves are still in good shape, and church members have done the cleaning and other upkeep for the buildings.
But Briggs and his weekly lunch buddies started worrying about what would happen to the churches and the frescoes as the church population ages. After kicking the idea around last spring, they decided to form a foundation dedicated to preserving the frescoes and keeping them open to the public.
They've since set up the foundation, with nine board members. Only four are members of the churches. Briggs said they wanted to leave the board majority as non-Episcopalian so that it's clear that the focus is on preserving Ashe County treasures and not on one denomination.
County commissioners recently appointed a final member of the newly constituted board, which will start service Jan. 1.
The Ashe County Frescoes Foundation has created a Web site, www.ashefrescoes.com, and raised about $8,000 so far.
The money will go for such things as regular cleaning during the busiest months, from May through November. Future possible projects include replacing carpets and improving the small restrooms.
Cabot Hamilton, the director of the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce, said that the frescoes are the No. 1 destination among tour buses pulling into the county.
"Many if not all of the tour buses that come to the county, they come to see the churches with the frescoes and they come to see the cheese factory (in West Jefferson) and they eat lunch and head back to wherever their home is," Hamilton said.
Griggs said they haven't kept count, but he estimates that about 40,000 to 50,000 people visit the churches each year.
Hamilton said he once saw 11 tour buses at one time in the parking lot at Holy Trinity.
Griggs said that many visitors say they are touched deeply.
"They have come and found peace," he said.
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
926-1573
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