The Old Stone Church was originally organized in 1837 as the Chickamauga Presbyterian Church. The founding members wrote, “We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being members of the Presbyterian Church, but having removed from our respective churches and settled in this vicinity where there is no organized church… do agree to associate ourselves together for the purpose of being regularly organized into a Presbyterian Church according to the principles and form laid down in the confession of faith.”

The first meetings were held in a log schoolhouse about a quarter mile south of the current site, and later in a small frame house to the north. Construction of the present stone structure began in the summer of 1850. Charter member Robert Magill and his brothers hauled sandstone from a quarry at White Oak Mountain. Completed in 1852, the church cost $1,600, with $200 of that donated by the Rev. W. H. Johnston, his entire year’s salary.

Catoosa County was created from Walker County in 1853, and the Old Stone Church may have been the first organized church in the area after the Cherokee removal in 1838. During the Civil War, the church stood near active battle lines. After fighting at Ringgold, Union General Judson Kilpatrick reported on May 2, 1864, that he “met the Confederates one mile from Stone Church… and drove them to Tunnel Hill.” During the Battle of Ringgold Gap, Confederate forces under General Patrick Cleburne used the church as a hospital, and Union forces later used it as a stable. Bloodstains still visible on the floor bear witness to its wartime role.

After the war, it continued as a Presbyterian church until 1912, when the name was changed to Stone Church to avoid confusion with another congregation. The Presbyterians ceased using the building in 1921, and it later passed through several owners before being acquired by the Catoosa County Historical Society. Today it serves as both their headquarters and a museum.

Built of native sandstone, the Old Stone Church is likely the only pre–Civil War sandstone sanctuary in Georgia. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it remains a remarkable and well-preserved piece of North Georgia history.