Mystery solved of the unknown church in 2017 Cherry Blossom Festival artwork

A white church with a single steeple tower sits on a hill above flowering cherry trees in this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival print.

Artist Teresa Smith used an old photograph for inspiration as she painted a tree-lined pond and puffy clouds.

Smith couldn’t remember where she took the picture, which she believes was taken sometime in the 1970s, but Andrea Fortner recognized the location right away.

Fortner, of Forsyth, took a picture of the church last summer on a trip to Columbus with her husband.

“I love old churches,” Fortner told The Telegraph after reading the original story on Smith’s painting.

Fortner talked her husband into stopping the car near the juncture of Ga. 96 and U.S. 80 in Talbot County so she could snap a photo.

“I had never gone that way before, and saw the church sitting off to the side of the road and thought it was beautiful,” Fortner said.

The old wooden church is now home to Open Door Ministries of Geneva.

Loy Hammond said it was a Presbyterian church before her congregation acquired it.

“It’s really old and we’ve done a lot of work on it,” said Hammond in a phone interview from west Georgia. “We’re proud of our little church.”

Hammond seemed to think the church was built just before the 19th century, but its precise history could not easily be traced.

The building appears in Brian Brown’s website featuring photographs of historic buildings across Georgia, but he wasn’t able to locate the history and estimates “it probably dates to the 1870s or 1880s.”

His January 2017 post explains “it’s a real gem and in a wonderful state of preservation.”

When Smith was painting the signature art for this year’s festival in Macon, she wondered whether it was still standing.

“That’s it!” Smith exclaimed upon seeing a more recent photograph of the church posted on the Christian Heritage music ministry’s website.

The group’s manager, Dale Washington, said the church is a hidden gem.

“It’s beautiful. We were amazed by the wood floors and all,” Washington said.

Smith’s painting is titled “Reflections of love, beauty and international friendship,” the threefold theme of the Macon festival.

It turns out that old building’s history epitomizes the spirit of unity the festival fosters, according to Hammond.

“At one time all the denominations worshiped there together.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Mystery solved of the unknown church in 2017 Cherry Blossom Festival artwork."