Boone in Watauga County, North Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)
The Junaluska Community
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, October 30, 2022
1. The Junaluska Community Marker
Inscription.
The Junaluska community is one of the oldest, intact communities of color in western North Carolina. Beginning with a small, mixed-race population of free and enslaved individuals who settled and farmed the hillside between Boone and Howard's Knob prior to the American Civil War, the Junaluska community began to coalesce by 1898, when local black residents built the Boone Methodist Chapel (demolished 1996) about halfway up the hillside. In the 1910s, local blacks acquired numerous parcels near African Street. now Church Street. located approximately 1,000 feet north of this marker. By 1918, following construction of a black primary school, numerous black-owned residences, and the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, this area was the geographic heart of the Junaluska community, and remains so today. Despite the injustices of segregation and racial inequality, the Junaluska community remains a cohesive and vibrant part of Boone's historical, economic, and social development.
The Junaluska community is one of the
oldest, intact communities of color in
western North Carolina. Beginning with
a small, mixed-race population of free
and enslaved individuals who settled and
farmed the hillside between Boone and
Howard's Knob prior to the American
Civil War, the Junaluska community
began to coalesce by 1898, when local
black residents built the Boone Methodist
Chapel (demolished 1996) about halfway
up the hillside. In the 1910s, local
blacks acquired numerous parcels near
African Street. now Church Street.
located approximately 1,000 feet north
of this marker. By 1918, following
construction of a black primary school,
numerous black-owned residences, and
the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church,
this area was the geographic heart of
the Junaluska community, and remains
so today. Despite the injustices of
segregation and racial inequality, the
Junaluska community remains a cohesive
and vibrant part of Boone's historical,
economic, and social development.
Erected 2021 by Boone Historic Preservation Commission.
is in Boone, North Carolina, in Watauga County. It is at the intersection of Queen Street and North Depot Street, on the right when traveling west on Queen Street. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 140 Queen St, Boone NC 28607, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in North Carolina’s and he Mountains in the High Country. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Upper South, in Appalachia, and specifically in Southern Appalachia. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region, North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the original Cherokee Nation, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, one of the original Thirteen Colonies, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Also see . . . Junaluska. Atlas Obscura website entry:
One of the oldest Black communities in western North Carolina and one of the largest Black Mennonite congregations in the country. (Submitted on May 2, 2025, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller, October 30, 2022
2. The Junaluska Community Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on May 2, 2025. It was originally submitted on November 16, 2022, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 814 times since then and 29 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on November 16, 2022, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
