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Cool Springs Street Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church - Chesnutt's journals suggest that he stayed very busy at the Evans Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, where he served as both organist and Sunday School superintendent while he was here. The origin of this church extends back to the late 1700s, when the Black preacher Henry Evans passed through Fayetteville. Impressed by the immorality of the area (a view echoed by many contemporary visitors and residents!), Evans began preaching. At first feared by the slaveholders, Evans was initially run out of town, but was invited back when the news spread of the positive effects of his preaching in the outlying areas. Evans established a church that was attended by Blacks and Whites until he died in 1810. From 1810 to 1865, the church had white clergy. After the Civil War the church became an important center of activity for African-Americans who were trying to improve conditions in the area. Flora MacDonald - Cool Spring Street is also the site of a historical marker to Flora MacDonald (click here for picture), the Scottish heroine who in 1746 saved Prince Charles Edward from capture by the English army by dressing him as her maid. He has been known as "Bonnie Prince Charles." She was imprisoned for seven years. In the 1760's, Flora MacDonald's family moved to North Carolina, and when the Revolutionary War broke out, her family supported the British. Supposedly at this site she rallied the Loyalist troops as they marched to the Battle of Moore Creek. There is some dispute about the actual location of the event. Despite her support of the British in the Revolutionary War, Flora MacDonald is a very important figure for local legend.Chesnutt reflects the local interests in Flora MacDonald in the following passage from The House Behind the Cedars when he describes the location of Judge Straight's office.
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