The Middle Tennessee State University Center for Historic Preservation describes Hackney Chapel as "one of the oldest and least altered churches" that it surveyed for its research on "Historic Rural African-American Churches in Tennessee". The church building is a one-story vernacular rectangular frame structure completed in October 1899 on land donated by F. R. and M. J. Hackney, African-American land owners. An extension on the front of the church building includes a vestibule and a bell tower. An addition on the rear of the building circa 1930 increased the size of the sanctuary and furnished a raised platform for the minister and the choir. The church has a gable roof and the bell tower has a hipped roof; both are covered by standing seam metal roofing. An outdoor picnic shelter was built next to the south side of the building around 1980.
