STONECREST, Ga. — Flat Rock Archive celebrated 25 years of preserving African American heritage Saturday, Sept. 12, with a gathering at its site on Crossvale Road in Stonecrest.

The nonprofit is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the Flat Rock community — enslaved African Americans and their descendants — and sharing the experience of rural Black families from earlier eras with future generations.

The site includes the T.A. Bryant Sr. House, a Georgian cottage built in 1917, along with a barn, smokehouse and outhouse built over the course of the 20th century. Flat Rock Archive Inc. also owns and manages the nearby historic Flat Rock Cemetery, with burials dating to the era of enslavement. The archive has drawn local and national recognition, including a 2006 appearance on the PBS series “African American Lives,” hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and featuring actor and comedian Chris Tucker, a direct descendant of the historic Flat Rock community.

Cheryl Moore-Mathis, president of the archive’s board of directors, announced a new partnership with Flat Rock Community Church to expand community programming. The collaboration came together, she said, after Pastor Eddie Patrick Harris Sr., who has led the church for more than 10 years, stopped by one morning and described a vision for the church that aligned with her own.

“We got together that following Tuesday, and we’ve been meeting at least once a week ever since,” Moore-Mathis said.

The partnership aims to enrich the community through potential services such as food banks or food pantries. Once land permits are secured, the groups plan to develop new trails for a safe walking area for elderly residents and a play area for children near the site. Moore-Mathis also pointed to the archive’s education work, noting it now partners with area schools and draws student groups on field trips. The organization has built a K-12 curriculum scaled to each age group so students can grasp the history’s significance.

“It’s people who don’t look like me who want to understand our history, and I get excited when the buses pull up,” she said.

Harris, senior pastor of Flat Rock Community Church, delivered the keynote in a speech that carried the rhythm of a sermon. He traced the community’s roots back to “the fields, the peanut fields, the cotton fields, where hands worked, sweat fell,” and credited T.A. Bryant Sr. with recognizing that land meant “opportunity, ownership, stability, community.” He also credited other early community figures, including Will Tanner, Tom Christian, Spencer Bryant and Rance Bailey.

“A legacy must have legs to carry out what our ancestors have built with their hands and their head,” he said. “We’re the legs of the legacy. It’s up to us to keep the legacy moving forward.”

He closed by urging patience with the archive’s ongoing preservation work, invoking “The Karate Kid”: “Trust the process. … Wax on, wax off. It’s going to work out.”

Stonecrest City Council Member George Turner said the archive is a natural draw for tourism, alongside Arabia Mountain and the city’s walking trails.

“You don’t have to go to the country to get that down-home feeling — you have it right here in the middle of the city,” he said. “We can do more than see it on a video or in a book. We can actually come out, smell it, feel it, touch it.”

Stonecrest City Manager Catherine Turner, speaking on behalf of the city, thanked the organization for its work.

“Preserving history is about more than remembering the past — it’s about honoring the people, the stories and the traditions that shape our community,” she said, adding that the city looks forward to continuing its partnership with the archive.

Moore-Mathis outlined plans to restore former farmland owned by T.A. Bryant Sr. and to establish an urban garden, with a butterfly garden planned as part of the long-term vision.

Dr. Gail Kemp, a visitor who stopped by after noticing balloons at the site, said she was drawn in by curiosity about her own family history.

“We identify as African American, so we’re descended from formerly enslaved individuals,” Kemp said. “We didn’t know this history before we moved here, and the archive is just around the corner from us. We’d been planning to check it out, but life got busy. As we were driving by today, we saw the balloons and decided to see if it was open to the public. We wanted to find out more about the history of the communities that lived here, because both our families came north through the Great Migration, so hearing about the families that stayed in the South is intriguing to us.”

Brian Henderson, who maintains the grounds, sat with his dog, Henry, on the property and described the quiet feeling of being there alone in the evenings as motion lights flicker on.

“You definitely feel something,” he said.

Moore-Mathis encouraged people to visit flatrockarchive.com to book a tour and learn more.

Flat Rock Archive Inc. is located at 3956 Crossvale Road, Stonecrest.